


The Walking Dead: Real Monsters

by Visambros



Category: The Walking Dead (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, Drama, Faux Video Game, Gen, Horror, Thriller, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-21 12:15:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 85,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/900200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Visambros/pseuds/Visambros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A terrible event had wrecked the world. Opportunities that should have come to be, memories that should have been made, would never happen the way they were supposed to. They all irreversibly cheated out of the happy lives they were going to have.<br/>This is the story of Nate's attempt to survive throughout the hardships of the apocalypse, from the beginning until 41 days in.</p><p>This story Is written as if you were playing The Walking Dead video game. I am not working for Telltale Games or have any official dealings with The Walking Dead series in any way.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beyond Moral Support

This game series adapts to the choices you make.

The story is tailored by how you play.

 

TELLTALE GAMES

Presents

 

In association with

SKYBOUND ENTERTAINMENT

 

**THE WALKING DEAD: REAL MONSTERS**

 

It was a shame that Nate wasn’t at a party. Not with Vaughan’s neighbors, those people were dumbasses and from what he could hear from across the street they were having a lame ass party, but the day was far too hot to be stressing. Nate wasn’t stressed himself, he had no need to be, but his friend’s anxiety was radiating off of him in such powerful waves that Nate felt on the verge of distress.

 

**Day 2**

 

 “Okay,” Vaughan said, slapping his hands on the kitchen table and causing Nate to flinch. “We need to come up with a lie. It has to be something _so bad_ it makes what I have to tell her not as bad.” Vaughan paused, his legs bouncing on the balls of his feet in a subconscious need to pace around the room. “And I need you to do it because I’m horrible at lying.”

| Why do I have to lie? |

**| A good friend wouldn’t |**

| Sure, whatever |

| … |

 “A good friend would tell you not to do this.” Nate began, moving away from the window and closer to Vaughan. “A good friend would tell you not to take the roundabout way and just tell your girlfriend the truth.” Nate stood beside his younger Asian friend and frowned down at him. Vaughan looked up with wide and startled eyes.

Nate smiled mischievously. “Fortunately, I am not that friend. This sounds awesome. Pass me the phone.” Vaughan blinked in confusion before laughing and passing the cellphone. Nate dialed the number and placed the phone to his ear. Vaughan stood up, succumbing to the urge to pace around the room. He took his glasses off, wiped them, and placed them back onto his face.

| Relax already |

| Stop pacing |

**| Head’s going to explode |**

| … |

“Your head’s going to explode if you keep stressing like this.” Nate told Vaughan, following his movements with his eyes. Vaughan stopped pacing and stared at him, his brows furrowed and eyes glaring. Nate looked away.

“Probably shouldn’t have said that. Sorry.” Nate mumbled.

“…It’s okay.” Vaughan said softly, shoulders slumping. He fidgeted his glasses closer to his face, ran his hands through his hair, and resumed moving around the room.

“Hello? Vaughan?” A voice from the phone asked.

“Hey Charlie. I need to tell you something.” Nate said.

“Hi Nate. What is it?”

“It’s about Vaughan.”

“…Is that so?” Charlie’s voice took on a suspicious tone. “What did he do?” Vaughan stopped. He stared at Nate, pulling at his hair as he waited for him to respond.

**| [Lie] He’s been ‘doing’ me |**

| [Lie] He got someone pregnant |

| [Lie] He wants to break up with you|

| … |

            “He’s been ‘doing’ me. Your boyfriend is having an affair.” Nate lied, surprising himself with how serious he sounded despite trying hard not to laugh. There was a dead silence in both the kitchen and the other end of the line. Nate was about to ask Charlie if she was still there when Charlie began screeching.

**(?) Charlie and Vaughan will remember that**

            “What!? _What!?”_ Charlie screamed acid in his ear. “Nate are you fucking-”

            “Yes, actually.” Nate interrupted, using all of his willpower not to start cackling. “I have been for a while. I’m at his house right now and-“

“I’m going to _fucking kill you!”_ Charlie screamed so loudly that Nate jerked the phone away from his ear. He glanced at Vaughan who was sputtering half sentences and broken off words. Vaughan looked around the room in disbelief, as if there were an invisible group of people in the kitchen that he could ask why Nate had used _that_ lie.

Nate put the phone back to his ear, but there was only the dull ring of the dial tone. Nate laughed, pressed the end call button, and tossed the cellphone back to Vaughan. The phone bounced off his fingers and Vaughan did a pathetic juggling act before grabbing a firm hold of the phone.

“She’ll be here soon.” He told Vaughan. He went into the fridge to get them both beers.

“Why!?” Vaughan asked.

“Why is she coming?” Nate asked back, glancing at Vaughan before turning his attention back to the fridge. “Isn’t that obvious? She’s pissed.”

“Why did you have to make _that_ your lie!?” Vaughan said, his voice shaking and his brows more furrowed than before.

**| I know what I’m doing |**

| You wanted me to lie |

| You’re going to have a heart attack |

| … |

            “Vaughan, I know what I’m doing.” Nate responded, suppressing a yawn. He took the cold beers out of the fridge. Vaughan dropped back into his chair, resting his arms on the table and covering his face in his hands. Nate sighed and continued. “Look, if I had said that you were cheating on her with some bimbo, Charlie wouldn’t have come here right away. She would have looked for the woman, beat her up, and _then_ come to your house.” Nate placed both their beers on the table and searched the drawers for a bottle opener.

            “Then why didn’t you say the girl was here?” Vaughan groaned through his hands. Nate took the opener out of a drawer and turned back to his friend.

            “Because if Charlie thinks we both wronged her then she’ll come here faster. And also that… didn’t occur to me as I was telling the lie.” Nate admitted with some humor. Vaughan groaned again.

            “Let’s go outside.” Nate said, passing the opener to Vaughan and picking up the two beers. “It’s better that we wait for her there than have her come and break the door down looking for us.”

Vaughan nodded, pushing the glasses upward and following Nate out of the door.

* * *

 

            The two men sitting on the stairs in front of the house were not assaulted by the sun’s heat. The shade did not, however, block them from the smells. The rank and musky sweat of the people running around; the strong, burning charcoal that overpowered the meat cooking from across the street; the cut grass; the wooden frames of old homes; and even the heat itself had a smell, something hard to describe but undeniably there.

            All of this went unappreciated by Nate, but he could tell from the forlorn look on Vaughan’s face that he cherished the sights, sounds, and smells of the area. When Vaughan wasn’t drinking his beer, his barely visible Adam’s apple moved up and down as if he were trying to swallow a stone.

            **(o) Look at house**

            The house across from them looked like all the other houses on the suburban street. The only thing that differentiated it was the charcoal smoke drifting off from the back.

            “They didn’t invite you to their party?” Nate asked Vaughan. The younger man moved the bottle away from his mouth.

            “They did.” Vaughan answered. “I just told them I couldn’t go because I wasn’t feeling well. I had to talk to you and Charlie so… I wouldn’t be good company anyways. The guy who invited me, Tom, said that this lunatic bit his brother and now he isn’t feeling well. But despite that he still managed to make it to the party.”

            “…Tom was trying to guilt trip you into going?” Nate asked, taking a drink of his beer.

            “Yeah.” Vaughan said, his shoulders dropping as he averted his eyes from the house.

            “You shouldn’t feel bad about not going. Those people are fucking stupid.” Nate said.

            “What? No. They’re not stupid. I mean they’re not _that_ stupid.” Vaughan said, brows arching upwards. Nate stared at him and Vaughan paused. “…Okay, yeah, they’re pretty stupid.” He admitted. They both chuckled at this.

            **(o) Look at children**

            The children were playing tag, tackling each other and running around. Nate rolled his eyes at the display, but Vaughan smiled.

            “It’s like they can’t feel the heat.” Nate muttered around his bottle.

            “I think I want children.” Vaughan said.

            “To eat?” Nate asked without missing a beat. Vaughan spat out the beer and coughed.

            “No!” Vaughan exclaimed after he caught his breath. “Not to _eat!”_

| Kids are okay |

| You shouldn’t have kids |

**| Children are gross |**

| … |

            “Children are fucking gross.” Nate said.

            **(?) Vaughan will remember that**

            “They’re not _that_ gross.” Vaughan disagreed. “And if they were, why would you want me to eat them?” Nate shrugged and continued drinking.

            **(o) Look at public flower memorial**

            It was attached to the light post across from Vaughan’s house. The flowers were weaved together to form a large circle. There was an assortment of flowers that made up this circle; though it looked aesthetically pleasing despite the apparent randomness in the selection of the plants.

            “What happened there?” Nate asked, pointing to the memorial. Vaughan looked up and frowned.

            “Hit and run. It was done on purpose from what I heard.” Vaughan said, the muscles in his face tightening.

            “Did you see it happen?” Nate asked.

            “No, but I heard it happen. It was the middle of the night. I heard someone scream and tires screeching. By the time I went to look the car was gone. The guy who got hit was… _God_.” Vaughan squinted his eyes and shook his head. “I hope nothing like that happens again. We don’t need any more violence here.” 

| There’s violence everywhere |

**| He probably deserved it |**

| Maybe nothing else will happen |

| … |

            The flowers swayed in the wind. Nate took a big gulp of his beer. “He probably deserved it.” Nate said nonchalantly. Vaughan gawked at him.

**(?) Vaughan will remember that**

            “No way!” Vaughan objected. “How could you say that?”

            “Come on man. No one kills people in the middle of the night for no reason unless they deserve it.” Nate said.

            “Or if the killers are horrible people!” Vaughan insisted angrily.

            “Whatever man.” Nate replied, bored of the conversation. He burped loudly.

            “Ew.” Vaughan said, irritated. He looked away from Nate and cleaned the invisible dirt off his glasses.

            **(o) Look at truck**

            Nate’s truck was in fine condition. He had finished fixing and upgrading it with a wax treatment, a new engine and fixed lights on top of the roof. He wasn’t the type of man who fell in love with vehicles, Nate thought people who did were fucking stupid, but he liked his truck and was pleased he was able to afford everything that he had done to it.

            It was sitting in Vaughan’s driveway. Vaughan didn’t have a car because he never learnt to drive.

            “You want to wait for Charlie inside the truck?” Nate asked. Vaughan inspected the truck for a moment before shaking his head.

            “That’s alright.” Vaughan said. “I’d rather wait out here. Your truck looks sweet by the way.”

            “It damn well should, I paid a shit ton of money tweaking it.” Nate replied, smiling.

            “I can tell.” Vaughan said.

            **(o) Look at Vaughan**

            Vaughan’s shoulders were slumped. There were bags under his eyes. His throat still made swallowing motions when he wasn’t drinking. He kept on moving the glasses on his face even when there was no need to fix them. When he wasn’t looking at anything specific, Vaughan looked as if he were staring into a void.

            Nate noticed all of this and was more worried than he would have admitted.

            **(o) Talk to Vaughan**

            Vaughan sighed, an action that made his entire body expand and then shrink to a size smaller than it originally was. He put down his beer, took off his glasses, held them in one hand, and covered his eyes with the other.        

            “I can’t believe I let this happen…” Vaughan uttered. Nate looked at his friend incredulously, shaking his head.

            “Let this happen?” Nate repeated. “Yes, because you ‘let’ yourself get brain cancer.”

            “I know.” Vaughan said. “I know it’s not my fault. I know there was nothing I could have done to prevent this but… it still feels like I could have done _something_ , you know? Maybe I could’ve eaten healthier or… maybe I could have gone to the doctor more or… God.” Vaughan moved his hand away from his eyes and wiped his mouth. “I don’t…” He sighed again.

**| What did the doctor say? |**

| Do you have a chance? |

| About Charlie… |

| Exit |

Nate rubbed the back of his neck and looked up at the sky. The shade no longer felt as adequate protection from the heat. Though Nate wasn’t sure if it was due to the day getting hotter, or if the subject the two of them were talking about made him more aware of the cruel weather.

“What did the doctor tell you again?” Nate asked.

“The doctor said that it was at stage 3, a regional spread.” Vaughan told him. “Which means that the original tumor is growing and moving throughout my brain but it hasn’t gone anywhere else yet. I think.”

“You _think?”_ Nate repeated, dumbfounded.

“…I didn’t listen much after she told me I had cancer.” Vaughan said.

| You need to pay attention |

| You can find out later |

**| She? |**

| … |

            “She?” Nate asked, smiling. “Your doctor’s a woman? Is she hot?”

            “ _Nate._ If you try to hit on my doctor I… please, can you just keep it in your pants? _Please_.” Vaughan pleaded.

            **(?) Vaughan doesn’t appreciate that**

            “Okay, okay.” Nate said, raising his hands in surrender.

**| Do you have a chance? |**

| About Charlie… |

| Exit |

            Nate drank some of his beer and wiped his mouth. He rubbed the back of his neck again and frowned at the ground. “You never told me what your chances are at beating this. Is it too late or… whatever?” Nate said this without looking at Vaughan.

            Vaughan sighed again. “The doctor said I should have come sooner.” Nate spared him a quick glance before looking away. “But,” Vaughan continued. “She also said it wasn’t too late. If I took chemo it would be difficult to get rid off, and my chances aren’t as positive, but it’s not impossible that I’ll live.”

            Nate looked at Vaughan and nodded. The younger man nodded back at him.

**| About Charlie… |**

| Exit |

            “What are you going to tell Charlie went she gets here?” Nate asked, smirking.

            “I’m going to tell her that you and me are _not_ having an affair!” Vaughan retorted, drinking a large gulp from beer in an angry and embarrassed manner. A few of the children playing outside stopped to look at the two of them.

            “Shh! Shh!” Nate hushed, laughing.

            “ Don’t ‘shh’ me, _my girlfriend thinks I’m gay!_ ” Vaughan said, even more embarrassed and angry than before. Nate laughed harder, covering his eyes with an arm. The children continued to watch them for a while longer before getting bored and going back to their own games.

**| Exit |**

            “It looks like we both could use a refill.” Nate said, motioning to their beer bottles. Vaughan looked at his own as if he forgot he was still holding it. He shook the bottle back and forth listening for the last bit of beer to knock against the insides, but no sound was made.

             “Well,” Vaughan said, “If you’re going to get some more, be quick. I don’t want to be on my own when Charlie comes.” He looked at both ends of the street. Nate rolled his eyes.

            “What? You’re not afraid of your girlfriend, are you?” Nate teased, starting to stand up.

            “You’ve known her longer than me and you’re _not_ afraid of her?” Vaughan asked.

| You’re a pussy |

**| Women don’t scare me |**

| I can take her |

| … |

            “Women don’t scare me.” Nate replied, his tone suggesting that being afraid of women was ridiculous.

**(?) Vaughan will remember that**

            Vaughan gave Nate a deadpanned look. “Women will kick you in the balls if you have that kind of attitude.” He warned.

            “Then I’ll kick them back.” Nate said.

            “Nate.” Vaughan groaned, the words ‘please don’t say that’ went unsaid but heard in his tone.

            “What? I don’t go around beating women, but I don’t fucking care what gender you are, if you hit me first I’m hitting you back.” Nate said defensively.

            “ _Nate_.” Vaughan groaned again. Nate ignored him and made to turn towards door when he spotted Charlie’s convertible speeding down the road.

            “She’s coming.” Nate told Vaughan. The younger man flinched. He fidgeted with his glasses, placed them back onto his face, and stood up along side Nate.

            “I’m not ready to tell her.” Vaughan admitted. He ran his fingers through his hair and flexed to hands. “I know I have to tell her, she’s my girlfriend but… _fuck_ , I don’t want her to know I have cancer. God. _Fuck_.”

| You want to keep lying? |

**| Better get it over with |**

| Stop freaking out already |

| … |

            “Better to get it over with now than later. It’ll be much harder if you put it off.” Nate said. Vaughan nodded distractedly.

Charlie’s car nearly hit Nate’s truck before it screeched to a stop in front of the curb. The playing children were startled by the noise and screamed, running away from the stationary convertible. A few of the neighbors peeked passed the blinds of their windows and opened their doors to see if an accident had happened. Noticing that nothing was out of the ordinary, they quickly went back to their own lives.

Charlie’s car door opened and the woman stepped out. She had a weapon in her hand.

“Is- is that a sword!?” Vaughan stammered out in a low voice, his eyes widening.

“It’s a butcher’s knife, actually.” Nate said, his voice equally as low. “I wonder how she got that…”

“Did you know she was going to do this!?” Vaughan asked.

| The weapon choice is a surprise |

| I had a feeling this would happen |

**| I won’t let her kill you |**

| … |

“Don’t worry, I won’t let her kill you.” Nate reassured him. “Besides, nothing is going to happen.”

Charlie was four feet away from them now. Her face was red not from crying, because Charlie _never_ cried, but from the blood going to her face due to her rage. Nate realized that he must have hit a bad nerve with his lie if it made her face change color. Her complexion was dark despite her half Asian background.

“Nate.” Charlie hissed at him. Nate stepped forward and in front of Vaughan. “You have five seconds to tell me what the _fuck_ is going on.” Nate looked at the hand holding the butcher’s knife and saw she was flexing her hold on the weapon.

| I lied |

**| Only five seconds? |**

| Not much to say |

| … |

            “Only five seconds? We’re going to need more time to tell you everything.” Nate said. Charlie glared at him.

            “I guess that’s true.” Charlie said with barely veiled resentment. “Seeing as it took you more than five seconds to call me and tell me that you were sleeping with my fucking boyfriend!” Nate couldn’t help himself, and though he tried to stop, his smile turned into chuckling which turned into a bout of hysterical laughter. Charlie was now shaking with fury and raised the knife.

            “Wait! Charlie stop! He was lying on the phone! I-“ Vaughan’s words were cut off as another car came speeding down the road. The three of them watched as it swerved between both lanes before clipping the side of Charlie’s car. Charlie screamed indignantly but the roar of the car’s engine drowned it out.  The car continued to drive in erratic circles; running over lawns, sprinklers, scraping against a fire hadron, flattening children toys; until it drove into the house of partying people across the street.

            The sound of glass and metal crumpling as the car collided with and through the wall of the house was explosive. Parents brought their small children inside as entire families left their houses to see what havoc had come to their street once again. No one, however, made a move to see if the person in the vehicle was still alive, or if any of the occupants in the damaged house were hurt. Everyone looked at everyone else or at the house or what could be seen of the car, waiting for someone, or the police, to help.

            “My fucking car.” Charlie hissed under her breath. She turned away from scene and walked towards her convertible, fuming as she got closer to it. The sight of his girlfriend walking away distracted Vaughan long enough to snap him out of his shock.

            “Nate!” Vaughan said, shaking Nate’s shoulder. “We need to help them!”

**| Wait for the police |**

| Fine, let’s go |

| YOU can go |

| … |

            “Vaughan, wait for the police to come. They’ll know what to do more than you will.” Nate told him.

            “But…” Vaughan said, distressed. “But what if someone’s been hurt?”

            “What will you if someone _has_ been hurt? You’re not a doctor.” Nate pointed out. A rebuttal was about to leave Vaughan’s mouth when the screaming began. The crowd that had gathered around the house began to back away as horrible crying, pained shrieking, gunshots, and an unexplainable moaning and hissing polluted the area. A bawling and bleeding man holding a gun tried to leave the house through the hole in the wall but was pulled back in by a dark hand, releasing the gun as he went howling for help. The gun he dropped went sliding onto the driveway.

            The crowd backed away even farther, some ran into their homes but others were too stunned. Charlie shot the house a confused but ultimately disinterested and peevish look.

            “Okay, the police aren’t going to come on time.” Nate breathed, pulling at the collar of his shirt. “We need to do something.”

            “Yeah…” Vaughan whispered back, his voice shaking. Nate turned away from the house of screaming and moaning voices.

            “Do you have your bow and arrows?” Nate asked.

            “They’re inside.” Vaughan said, still staring at the house.

            “Get them.” Nate ordered. “Being an archer is going to be useful outside of competitions for once.” Vaughan nodded and broke his gaze of the house to look at his friend.

            “What are you going to do?” Vaughan asked.

            “A man dropped a gun on the driveway. I’m going to take it and shoot these fuckers.” Nate answered.

            “Have you used a gun before?” Vaughan asked, worried.

| It can’t be that hard |

| Maybe |

| Nope |

 **|** **…** **|**

            Nate didn’t answer that; instead he smiled awkwardly at Vaughan.

**(?) You somewhat reassured Vaughan**

“I’m going to interpret that as a yes.” Vaughan said. “Be careful.” Vaughan ran back into his house. Nate watched him go in before walking towards the driveway.

**(o) Move through crowd**

A section of the people who hadn’t left were in his way, standing in front of Vaughan’s driveway. Nate grabbed the shoulders of whoever was blocking him and lightly moved them. One of the people he touched squealed in surprise, causing the rest of them to turn around and look at Nate, unconsciously clearing a path for him. He overheard a few whispered comments of people asking their neighbors what he was planning to do, ridicule about how he was crazy, and the hopes that the police would come before he got hurt. Nate ignored them.

“They’re like fucking sheep.” He murmured under his breath.

The air smelt like exhaust, burned tires and, for a reason that Nate couldn’t explain, rotting flesh. He felt the number of broken pieces of metal, glass, and wood under his feet increase the closer he got to the house. As he reached the driveway of the former house party it occurred to him that he no longer heard crying or screaming. It wasn’t silent; there were strange chewing, crunching, and gnawing noises; there were groaning and moaning; but no crying, no yelling, and no sounds of the partygoers trying to fight back.

Nate realized he was scared and fought the feeling down.

**(o) Look at gun**

“There’s the gun.” Nate told himself.

The gun, a glock, was lying beside a large piece of the car.

**(o) Look at car piece**

“What part of the car is that?” Nate asked himself. “It might be apart of the door, but I can’t fucking tell… Maybe I could use this as a melee weapon.”

**(o) Pick up car piece**

He took a handful of his shirt and ripped it off. He then held the car piece and wrapped around the part that he would hold. Nate squeezed it tightly to make sure it wouldn’t cut him and nodded when it didn’t.

**(o) Pick up gun**

Nate bend down and picked up the gun. Nate had held fake guns before but never held, let along fired, a real one. Now he was going to try and shoot dangerous people with one.

“It’s too late to back down now.” Nate murmured to himself. “Besides, there are people watching.” He looked behind him and saw the crowd of people staring back at him expectantly, fearfully. Hopeful. All he needed to do was get the attention of the bastards inside of the house. Nate inhaled.

| Come out! |

**| Hey assholes! |**

| Fuck you! |

| … |

“Hey assholes! I hope you like heat because you’re all going to hell in five seconds!” Nate yelled. He held the gun in what he thought was the correct one-handed aiming position and waited for them to come out. All noise in the house stopped and Nate fought the urge to shout out again. He heard concerned muttering from behind him but ignored it. He began to wipe his forehead with the back of the hand holding the car piece.  

Before he had finished wiping, he heard someone behind him scream. He turned quickly towards the crowd, thinking that they were being attacked. However, to his unease and confusion, they were unharmed. Instead, the crowd was looking behind him, wide-eyed with fear. Nate turned around and nearly dropped his gun.

What came out of the house wasn’t a gang of insane thugs. It was rotting flesh, split skin, bloody drool, and angry eyes. It was dragging feet, gashing hands, hissing and groaning voices, and dangerous thoughts.  These were fucking _people_ once. Nate knew this. He recognized some of Vaughan’s neighbors in the growing gang of monsters. They were people once so how the fuck did this happen!?

“What the fuck.” Nate whispered shakily. One of them was getting close to him and he back up, nearly tripping over his feet. He raised his gun and car piece and prepared himself.

**(o)**

Nate upturned his left arm and brought the car piece down on the zombie’s neck.  Black blood sprayed out, hitting him in the face. The zombie tried to grab at him and Nate put a bullet through its head.

**(o)**

A zombie of someone he had never seen before stumbled towards him. It’s face was smashed in and pieces of glass protruded out of different parts of its body. Nate distractedly wondered if this had be the driver before impaling its eye with the car piece.

**(o)**

One who might have been Tom lashed out at him. It took Nate three bullets to put it down.

**(o)**

Another monster shambled toward Nate, haphazardly stepping over the one that had just fallen. Nate shot it in the chest, expecting it to fall down. The force of the bullet caused it to stumble back, but it did not fall. It continued its way hissing and moaning towards Nate no more disturbed than it had been before.

Nate tried to shoot it in the head and missed. He fired again and missed again. He backed up, raising the car piece to hit the damn thing when a butcher’s knife sliced through the side of its head. He turned to his right and stared at Charlie as she put her foot to the zombie’s side and kicked it away. Charlie said nothing and went after the other monsters.

He turned his attention back to the rest of the zombies, but he did so far too late. One of them grabbed hold of Nate.

“Fuck!” He screamed. Nate jerked and the gun flew out of his hand. “ _Fuck!_ ”

**< <<<<Q>>>>>**

The zombie held Nate’s shoulders, its hands digging into his skin, and attempted to bite down on his neck. He turned the car piece horizontally against the creature’s chest and pushed, straining against the weight and force of the zombie to keep it from biting him.

**[E]**

He shoved hard against the monster. It staggered back but did not let go. Nate yanked his arms towards himself in an attempt to pull free, inadvertently dropping the car piece, but the zombie did not release its hold and was brought forward into Nate’s body. This caused them both to fall down. Fear kept him from feeling most of the pain as his body hit the pavement.

**< <<<<Q>>>>>**

Nate took hold of the monster’s neck and strained to push upwards and keep the zombie from biting the flesh off his face. The weight of the zombie’s body was intensified now that Nate was supporting it through the neck. Nate’s muscles tensed keeping the zombie’s head from lowering. It’s lips parted and the thing bared its teeth, snapping them together as it got closer. Nate felt its bloody drool run down his face. His eyes burned as it hissed hot breath into them. Nate turned his head and felt its nose touch his check and-

It stopped moving. Nate slowly turned his head back to look at the zombie. Its jaw had gone slack, its eyes stared into nothing, and an arrow was coming out of its ear. Nate threw the thing off of him and looked in the direction the arrow had come from.

Vaughan stood frozen; his stance fixed in the position he was in when he let go of the arrow. His eyes were so wide and frightened in that moment that he briefly looked more than three years younger than Nate.  The older man stood up, his legs shaking, and wiped the muck off of his face with a trembling hand. This action took Vaughan out of his stunned state and the younger man ran towards Nate.

“Are you alright?” Vaughan said. Behind Nate, Charlie was killing the last zombie, stabbing it through the neck and up into its brain. The thing went slack and Charlie yanked the knife out. Its body fell heavily onto the ground. Vaughan looked at the fallen body, deeply disturbed. Then he looked at the one he had just killed, his aghast growing, and turned his attention back to Nate.

“Nate? Did…” Vaughan quivered. “Did I just kill someone? Did we just _kill_ people? I shot someone in the head… but it doesn’t look human anymore. I mean they kind of do, but not really? _Fuck_ …”

| Yes we did |

| No we didn’t |

**| High five |**

| … |

            “Give me five.” Nate said, willing his hand not to shake as he raised it.  Vaughan reluctantly slapped his hand.

            **(?) You didn’t answer Vaughan**

            “…Did we just high five to us killing people?” Vaughan asked. Nate’s face twitched as he attempted to smile at Vaughan. He wasn’t successful.

            **(o) Look at arrow**

            The clean surface of the arrow was in stark contrast to the rotting thing it had impaled. Blood trailed out of the ear of the zombie and down its face, making a pool around its head. The blood was black and smelled rancid. Nate involuntarily shivered. That fucking thing had been on top of him!

            “Nice shot.” Nate murmured.

            “Thanks?” Vaughan said, unsure if he should accept praise for killing something that might have been human.

            **(o) Take arrow**

            Nate inhaled through his nose and walked closer to the impaled zombie. He placed his foot against its head.

            “Nate what are you-” Vaughan stopped talking as Nate grabbed hold of the arrow with one arm and pulled. There was a squishing, sliding noise as metal brushed against flesh. There was also the sound of bones snapping as Nate moved the arrow around. Vaughan covered his mouth and gagged but could not look away. Nate released the arrow, rotated his right hand to keep it from cramping, and grabbed the arrow again with both hands. He pulled, and the arrow came out with a popping noise and a small spray of blood.

            “I will not throw up, I will not throw up…” Vaughan told himself. He slowly removed his hand from his mouth. Nate turned towards him and passed him the arrow.

            “Here,” Nate said. “You might need this later.” Vaughan hesitantly took the arrow from him and put it in the carrying bag with the rest.

            “Wait. Why will I need this later? I mean it’s over. Right?” Vaughan asked, looking hopelessly at Nate. Nate’s face twitched again. He didn’t know what he meant by ‘later’. Maybe he was referring to future competitions and not the possibility of more monsters. That was the last of them, wasn’t it?

            **(o) Look at Vaughan**

            “Your glasses are crooked.” Nate told him.

            “Oh.” Vaughan said lamely. As Vaughan fixed his glasses with a trembling hand, Nate noticed that his friend no longer looked depressed. He did, however, look scared out of his mind. Nate wasn’t sure which one he preferred less.

            **(o) Look at Charlie**

            Charlie was examining the bodies of the zombies with cold fascination. Her head tilted to the side as she kicked one over onto it’s back. She flipped her knife, making sure to hold the blunt side of the blade, and began to prod it.

            “Shit, she’s not even fazed by any of this.” Nate muttered to himself. “I don’t know where she’s hiding her balls, but they’re made out of steel. _Fuck_.”

            Nate heard foots steps behind him and turned. The crowd was now walking closer to the scene. A woman pushed through the crowd and ran towards the house.

            “Where are you going?” Vaughan called. When she didn’t answer, he ran after her. Charlie ignored them as they passed by her and entered the house. Nate started walking after them when an arm touched his shoulder. He unconsciously jerked away before turning to look at the person. It was a man, another one of Vaughan’s neighbors that he didn’t know.

            “What’s going on?” The man asked. The other members of the crowd looked at Nate expectantly.

| They’re monsters |

| I don’t know |

**| Thanks for helping |**

| … |

            “Thank for helping everyone. Seriously, you were all such a _big_ help. Just standing there, doing _fucking nothing_.”  Nate sarcasm was venomous. “Thank you.”     

**(?) You didn’t answer the crowd**

            A wave of shame passed over the crowd. Nate shook his head and looked at the ground. He saw where the gun landed and bent to pick it up. As he was rising, he looked up in time to see the woman who had run in carrying someone. A small group of people came to her aid. Nate walked forward to make sure the injured person wasn’t a monster.

            “Are you alright?” The woman asked, placing the injured woman onto the ground. “Someone get her some water!” The injured woman looked around in a panic, shaking as her eyes darted back and forth between the people around her, the zombies on the ground, her own injuries, and back to the people again.

            “Ma’am? Are you al-” The woman began.

            “I haven’t been bitten! I _haven’t!”_ The injured woman cried, her voice cracking. The other woman and Nate look at each other, puzzled.

            **(o) Talk to injured woman**

            Her clothes were torn, her skin was cut and bruised, but from what Nate could see there were no bite marks. Nate crouched down until he was on the same level as the hysterical, bleeding woman sitting on the ground. She looked and him, head hilted and twitching.

**| What your name? |**

| What happened? |

| Why bites? |

| Exit |

            “What’s your name?” Nate asked. The injured woman looked into space for a moment before answering.

            “It’s Anya.” She said.

            “How old are you?”

            “Thirty-nine.”

            “What country do you live in?”

            “America.”

            “Do you remember how to breathe?”

            She paused. “…Yes, I do.”

            “Then breathe. You’re safe now.” Nate said. Anya looked at Nate, wide-eye and almost hopeful before the muscles in her body tensed. She cupped her hands to her face as shook harder.

            “I don’t think _any_ of us are safe yet.” She cried. The other woman looked up at Nate appreciatively. ‘You tried’, her eyes said.

**| What happened? |**

| Why bites? |

| Exit |

            “What happened in there?” Nate asked Anya. “How did this happen?” The injured woman shuddered. Her lips made a tight line on her face. Nate thought she wasn’t going to answer until he heard her clear her throat. Anya looked passed Nate, the other woman, and the crowd of people slowly gathering around her; staring into a dark space only she could see.

            “A party.” She began. “It was Tom’s birthday today. We didn’t have many people come but he didn’t mind. Tom wanted a small party, at least that’s what he had told us. We didn’t have much entertainment but it was fun. We were having _fun_ and then…” She trailed off, tears streaming down her face. The other woman rubbed her back.

            “Then… then the wall exploded. No one was on the first floor; Tom’s brother was upstairs sick and we were all at the back waiting around the barbeque, so no one got hurt initially. But when we heard the noise we left the backyard to see what happened. That’s when everything went to hell.”

            “A woman stumbled out of the car and slammed the door behind her. She had bite marks all over her; on some places there were chunks of flesh taken out. The right side of her check was just _gone_. I could see her teeth!” A few people in the crowd gasped and groaned at this.

            “She wasn’t one of them, not at that moment, but she was in shock. None of us knew what to do but we tried to help her. And then Tom noticed that there were some more people in the car, so he flung open the door to get them out. He wanted to know if they were okay. But they weren’t okay and they weren’t people. They were _monsters_. There was three of those things and they looked… they looked like they were dead but they couldn’t have been because they were moving and…” Anya started sobbing. “Then they started attacking everyone…”

The crowd spoke to each other in startled whispers. Nate looked back at the house and realized Vaughan hadn’t come out.

“Everyone, please give Anya some space.” The other woman commanded. The crowd slowly backed away from the sobbing woman, giving the bodies on the ground wide girth. Nate didn’t move, but a nod from the other woman told him that he was fine where he was.

**| Why bites? |**

| Exit |

Nate looked at Anya again and still didn’t see any bite marks on her.

“Why are you so fixated on bites? I don’t-” Nate started.

“Because that’s how you turn!” She cried. “They bite you, you die, and then you come back as one of them!” The other woman’s eyes bulged in surprise.

| Are you sure? |

| That’s crazy |

**| Fuck |**

| … |

“Fuck…” Nate hissed. If that was true, then he had a close call when the monster jumped him. He could have turned into one of them. Nate kept from shuddering at the thought.

“Are you sure?” The other woman asked.

“I’m positive!” Anya wept. “I saw it happen! My sister… one of those horrible things bit into her throat and tore it out. She bled to death so quickly. But then she came back as _that!”_ Anya pointed to one of the bodies on the ground. Both Nate and the other woman looked at it. It was the one that had been shot by the arrow. The rotting face of the zombie looked eerily similar to Anya’s.

“It wasn’t just her.” Anya bawled. “It happened to Tom and Jared and the woman who crashed into the house. It happened to everyone at the party. Oh _God!”_ She placed her hands to her face and wailed harder. Her entire body heaved and shook violently. It looked as if she would fall apart on the pavement, piece by piece, and become debris as useless as the fragments of the house, the car, and the bodies of her dead friends.

**| Exit |**

Anya put her knees to her face and wrapped her arms around her legs. She rocked herself slowly and tried to keep from hyperventilating. Nate nodded to the other woman. She stared back at him, tears falling from her eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck and stood up.

Screaming came from the house. A group of people gasped and backed away. The other woman tried to move Anya farther from the house, but Anya sat frozen where she was. Vaughan came out, struggling with another monster. It had grabbed hold of his upper arms and was trying to pull Vaughan closer to it. Vaughan pushed back on its chest, trying to keep it away from him.

“Vaughan!” Charlie screamed and ran towards him. Before she had gotten close enough to help she tripped on a piece of car and fell. Her knife went flying into the house.

**(o)**

Nate raised his gun. He moved it constantly, trying to follow the zombie’s movements as Vaughan twisted his body and shoved against the monster. Nate fired and missed. He swore and aimed again.

Charlie pulled herself up from the ground and ran over to Vaughan. She grabbed hold of the thing’s shoulders and pulled back. The movements between the three of them were still erratic but lessened now.

**(o)**

Nate held his breath and fired.  The zombie’s head exploded. Charlie and Vaughan both screamed and let go of the body. Nate jogged over to the both of them.

“Are you alright?” Charlie asked Vaughan. He didn’t reply, his eyes twitching and staring into the blood splatter on his glasses. Nate touched his shoulder and he flinched.

“I… I thought he was passed out.” Vaughan whimpered. “I went up the stairs because I didn’t find anyone alive on the first floor, and I saw Tom’s brother laying outside of one of the bedrooms, like he were trying to leave and lost consciousness. So I picked him up and carried him downstairs. By the time I got to the bottom he woke up. I put him down and I… I was about to ask him how he was when he lunged at me.” Vaughan shook his head. Nate squeezed his shoulder. Charlie took off his glasses and wiped them clean.

“ _He’s been bitten!”_ Anya screamed. The other people around them made startled noises as they looked between Vaughan and Anya.

“What? No I haven’t!” Vaughan said. “Why does it matter? If I had got bitten I could just go to the doctor.”

“No! If you get bitten there’s nothing doctor’s can do! You turn into one of those fucking things and eat people!” Anya hollered. “We have to get him before anyone else get killed!” Charlie glared at Anya, handing Vaughan his glasses before waking into the house.

| He hasn’t been bitten |

| Is she right Vaughan? |

**| Have YOU been bitten? |**

| … |

“Have _you_ been bitten?” Nate asked, crossing his arms. “You look far worse than he does. For all we know you’re hiding the bite somewhere.”

“I wasn’t bitten! Don’t redirect the problem!” Anya said.

“You’re the fucking problem!” Nate argued.

“No I’m not! _He_ is and _he’s_ going to attack all of us!” Anya cried. Vaughan stared at her, overwhelmed. She faced the crowd of her frightened neighbors.

“None of you tried to help us when we needed you before, and I understand why. I really do. But now you have to step up before more of us get hurt. _Please_.” She begged. The group of people murmured to each other. Some shook their heads, a few nodded in agreement, others tried to step forward but were held back by family members.

“Bitch, you better shut up. Right. Now.” Charlie said, leaving the house knife in hand. She tried to walk past Vaughan but he grabbed her arm and whispered something in Japanese. She frowned at him but stopped moving.

“Bitch? I’m a bitch because I’m trying to keep everyone safe?” Anya whined.

“He wasn’t bitten, you _bitch!”_ Charlie said. Vaughan said something to her in Japanese again and she responded in an agitated tone.

| You ARE a bitch |

**| Vaughan, strip |**

| Charlie calm down |

| … |

            “Vaughan, strip.” Nate ordered. Vaughan sputtered out alarmed noises before he was able to speak.

            “What!? _Why!?”_ Vaughan asked, face reddening.

            “Because she won’t stop bitching until she knows that you haven’t been bitten.” Nate explained. “Don’t be a pussy and just take off you damn clothes.”

            “No.” Vaughan said.

            “C’mon man!” Nate said, irritated.

            “ _No_.” Vaughan said, crossing his arm.

            “Vaughan.” Charlie growled. “Stop being so-”

            “I am _not_ taking off my clothes!” Vaughan said. Nate and Charlie rolled their eyes.

            “You see!” Anya said, pointing towards Vaughan. “He won’t try to prove he’s not bitten. He’s hiding something!”

            “No I-” Vaughan tried to explain.

            “Please!” Anya pleaded to the crowd. “Get him!” The ones who agreed with her began to walk forward.

            Charlie snared. “ _Now_ you decide to do something!? Fuck you!”

| Police can handle this |  
 **| You’re all sheep |**  
| Fuck off |  
| … |

            “You’re all a bunch of goddamn sheep!” Nate yelled. “The only reason why you’re doing anything now is because you don’t think he’ll fight back. Well screw all of you! At least Vaughan fought when it fucking mattered!”

            **(?) You sided with Vaughan**

            The steps of the oncoming mass began to falter, but as they looked at the bodies on the pavement, the hole in the house, and the bruised and broken girl, they came to an unspoken but unified agreement. They would take out this man. They would kill him humanely, but he would die. They would no longer be sheep. They would step up to protect their town and their families.

**| Fight back |**

| Do nothing |

            **(?) You chose to fight back**

            There was a loud bang and everyone stopped moving. Anya looked down at her shirt as a red dot began to form. This dot started at her navel and grew until it encompassed her entire stomach and ran down her pants. Nate realized that this red dot was blood, the blood was coming out of her because she had been shot, and the bullet that had entered her came from the gun he was holding.

            He had shot the poor, broken lady.

            Anya pressed her hands to her stomach, held it there, and raised them to her face. She looked at them in great confusion, as if the blood leaking out of her body wasn’t real and she couldn’t understand why her hands were so dirty. She stood that way, swaying as she looked at her hands, until her eyes rolled up and she fell gracelessly to the ground.

            The other woman who had been at her side the entire time began to scream. This causes the others to panic, wanting to run away but fearing the man with the gun too much to move. Nate distantly heard Vaughan’s horror filled mantra, a string of whispered no’s as he trembled in place.

| [Point gun at crowd] |

| We’re leaving |

**| Help me Charlie |**

| … |

            “Charlie, help me out here.” Nate said. Charlie nodded and lunged at the crowd of frightened people. They screamed and backed away. One person wasn’t fast enough and the side of his neck was sliced open. Blood sprayed out of the wound and the man fainted. Vaughan screamed. Nate grabbed hold of his arm walked briskly towards his truck. Charlie led the way, swinging her knife at people but hitting no one else.

            Nate opened the passenger door and pushed Vaughan inside. Charlie followed in after him. He closed the door and made his way towards the driver’s side. Before he went in, he spared a glance at the people still around the house.

Four people were crowded around both Anya and the man with the sliced open neck. The ones around Anya were trying to see if the bullet had gone through her or was still in her body. The ones around the man were trying to stop the blood flowing out of his neck. Everyone else was either staring and the bleeding people or watching Nate, praying that he would go away. Nate got into his truck and drove off.

They drove without incident until Nate turned to leave the residential area. What he saw almost caused him to slam on his breaks, but he had the mind to slowly come to a stop.

It was the same monsters from before, only now there were hundreds of them. They moved around like crazed vultures; lurching, grasping, and eating people.

“Oh my god.” Vaughan whispered. “Where did they all come from?”

“The city. The must have come from the city.” Charlie answered, fighting to control her voice. Nate’s eyes darted around to every zombie in view.

“Nate.” Vaughan said. “ _Nate!_ We need to go back and find another way out!”

“There’s no point. If they’re coming from the city then all the exits are going to be like this.” Charlie said. Nate placed his head on the steering wheel.

“Then what are we going to do!?” Vaughan cried. There was a moment of silence before Nate spoke.

“I’m going to drive through them.” Nate muttered. Charlie and Vaughan stared at him.

“What?” Charlie asked. Nate raised his head from the wheel, reversed his truck a few meters and stopped.

“I said I’m going to drive through them.” Nate repeated. Vaughan stammered as he tried to object to this idea. However, it dawned on him that there was no other way out of this situation. He took of his glasses, rested his elbows onto his knees and covered his eyes.

“Can the truck take much damage?” Charlie asked.

| I think so |

| I don’t know |

**| Maybe not |**

| … |

            Nate paused before slowly shaking his head. “Maybe not.” He told her. “But I’d rather try to go through them than wait to die. I’m not going to let them eat us without a fight.” Charlie nodded. Vaughan placed the glasses back onto his face and raised his head. His lips trembled as he looked straight into the hoard.

Nate tightly grasped the wheel and drove forward.

* * *

 

It was an hour before they got to the cliff overlooking the city. Less than half of that time was spent driving through the hoard of zombies, yet it was the longest period of time any of them had experienced. The bodies hitting his truck, their bones braking, and their blood splashing on the window was something Nate could still hear in his head.

He stopped the truck a few meters from the edge of the cliff. The second the truck stopped moving, Vaughan took off his seatbelt and crawled over Charlie to get out. Charlie swore in surprise. He ignored her. Vaughan staggered out until he met a tree. He leaned his back against it and slid slowly to the ground, hugging himself when he reached the bottom. Nate and Charlie looked at him and then at each other.

“We should leave him alone for now.” Charlie told him. She got out of the truck and walked to the edge of the cliff. She stayed far left of the truck, giving Vaughan as much space as possible. Nate rested his head against the steering wheel before existing.

**(o) Look at truck.**

There were fragments of clothes, blood splatter, and chucks of flesh and hair all over his goddamn truck. Any hint that it had ever been waxed was gone. The lights onto of the roof looked loose but he could fix it. If there was ever a time to be glad that he was not a vehicle lover it was now. Otherwise he would have been dismayed. Nevertheless, Nate was irritated by the state of his truck.

“If I had known my truck would end up looking like this, I would have never bothered tweaking the fucking thing.” Nate grumbled. “Then again, maybe that’s why it doesn’t look too bad now. Still, shit… where did the ‘v’ go?” The ‘v’ in the Chevrolet logo was missing. “Cherolet?”

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

Vaughan’s glasses were crooked and he was shaking badly. He was murmuring; Nate couldn’t make it out until he got closer.

“Don’t throw up.” Vaughan whispered. “Don’t throw up, don’t throw up, don’t throw up.”

“Vaughan…” Nate started. Vaughan glared up at him.

“Why did you shoot her!?” Vaughan yelled suddenly.

**| They were going to kill you |**

| What would you have me do? |

| Why didn’t YOU defend yourself? |

| … |

“Vaughan, I had to do something. They were going to kill you.” Nate said.

“You don’t know that!” Vaughan argued. He grabbed hold of the grass and pulled at it.

“Yes I do!” Nate said, irritated. “They thought you were infected, they were going to _murder_ you!”

            “So she deserved to die? Like that man who died from the hit and run?” Vaughan asked bitterly. He was bringing up dirt now. “What are you going to do when another misunderstanding happens? Kill more innocent people?”

| No |

| If I have to |

**| I’ll make you kill them |**

| … |

            “I’ll make _you_ kill them next time, you ungrateful piece of shit!” Nate roared.

            **(?) Vaughan will remember that.**

            “Fuck you Nate!” Vaughan screamed back.

            “Fuck _you_ asswipe!”

            “Leave me alone!”

            “ _Fine_.” Nate growled. He turned around and stormed off.

**(o) Look at city**

            The city below them looked normal. The building weren’t falling apart, nothing was on fire, and the sky was clear. It was almost impossible to believe that down there, the dead were walking.

            **(o) Talk to Charlie**

            “Hey…” Nate muttered.

            “I told you not to talk to him.” Charlie said without looking away from the view.

            “Charlie, don’t start.” Nate sighed.

            “Do you feel bad about what happened?” Charlie asked. She spared a glance at him.

**| I think I do |**

| Not really |

| Feel bad that it’s bothering Vaughan |

| … |

            “I think I do.” Nate said slowly. “It’s not like I didn’t feel anything when I shot Anya but… I don’t feel as bad as I think I should. I always heard that having blood on your hands was the worst feeling in the world.” Nate looked at the palms of his hands. They were dirty and smelt awful. “I feel fine though. A bit sad, but fine… Is there something wrong with me?”

            **(?) Charlie will remember that**

            “You don’t count the monsters as people?” Charlie asked, ignoring his question.

| They’re dead |

**| They’re monsters |**

| A little bit |

| … |

            “You just called them monsters.” He said. “I have no reason for feeling bad about killing monsters. Besides, they’re already dead.” Charlie nodded and turned towards Nate.

            “You shouldn’t feel bad about that woman.” Charlie told him. “You did it to protect Vaughan. He’ll understand that eventually.” She paused. “…Thank you for saving him.”

| You’re welcome |

| Don’t thank me |

**| You’re not mad? |**

| … |

            “You’re not mad at me anymore?” Nate asked, wondering how the phone call earlier that day felt so far away. Charlie frowned but shook her head.

            “No. I believe Vaughan when he said that you were lying. Besides,” She looked back at the city. “You two would be the worst couple ever.” Nate laughed at this much harder than he should have, but it was nice to laugh after all the craziness he had gone through.

            “I want to know why you were so quick to believe I was telling the truth?” Nate mused aloud. “Like damn, most people would chalk that up as bullshit. Not you though. You get angry right away and pretend like you’re going to kill people.”

            “Pretend?” Charlie repeated.

            “Oh shut up Charlie, you weren’t going to do anything.” Nate laughed

            “I got mad because Vaughan is my shit. You don’t mess with my shit.” Charlie explained. Nate blinked.

            “…I’m sorry? Did you just refer to Vaughan as your _‘shit’_?” Nate asked, brows furrowed.

            “Yes. Like my… car… it’s still down there, Goddamn it.” Charlie said. She peevishly kicked a stone down the cliff. They both watched as it bounced down and out of view.

            “Speaking about down there, we need to make a plan about what we’re going to do and where we’re going to go.” Charlie said. Nate nodded, but at that moment he felt so drained. Everything had gone to shit so fast. He just needed more time to breathe.

            “That sounds great but could we do that later? I just need to _rest_ for a while.” Nate said. Charlie looked him up and down.

            “Alright.” She said agreeably. “This place is safe enough. We don’t need to rush.” Nate sighed. He sat down on the edge of the cliff. Charlie sat with him.

            “As long as we’re together, we’ll be alright.” Nate said.

            “I agree.” Charlie said. “As long as we take care of each other we-”

            “Nate! Charlie!” Vaughan yelled. They both turned towards him. He was standing up and backing away from the trees. “We got to go! I see more of those things coming!”

            “Fuck!”


	2. Nursing The Danger

_This game series adapts to the choices you make._

_The story is tailored by how you play._

TELLTALE GAMES

presents

 

in association with

SKYBOUND ENTERTAINMENT

 

THIRTY-FIVE DAYS LATER

 

Nate always acknowledged the aesthetics of houses; the impressive designs of mansions, quaintness of cottages, the unoriginality of copycat complexes; but he never known how much energy radiated off of these places. Never known how much he could _feel_ this energy, albeit subconsciously. Whether people were cooking, cleaning, fucking, bathing; whether people loved life or hated it; the lives of others flowed off of them and circulated in their homes. And their homes, in turn, made the world warm.

Now all the people abandoned their homes and no matter how different all the houses looked from each other, they felt as dead as the rest of the world. All the energy had faded into space, possibly to another planet where things hadn’t gone to hell. This neighborhood so similar to the one they had run away from five weeks ago was no exception. Nate was surprised by how much he cared.

“These houses don’t look like they’ve been raided yet.” Nate sounded more indifferent than he felt. “We might have hit the jackpot.”

**(o) Look at house door**

There was a symbol on three of the doors, a number eight with a vertical line down the middle and a small cross to the upper right. The cross was their way of signifying to each other that they were in the house, and the slashed eight told them that the house was emptied of anything useful. Charlie had come up with the signs.

“Three already? How is she going through the houses so quickly? The truck isn’t that full.” Nate wondered. “Maybe there’s no jackpot after all...” He looked at the fourth house to his right and made his way towards it.

He walked up the steps of the house to the porch and stood in front of the door.

**(o) Open door**

Many people assumed that things would blow over and they would be able to return home again. They assumed they wouldn’t die before being able to go back. So they boarded the windows and locked the doors to keep their belongings safe until they could return. However, there were always a few homes that didn’t take those precautions. Nate didn’t understand why, but it didn’t matter to him. What was important was making sure that the doors were not already open before trying to break through and make unnecessary noise.

Nate grabbed the knob and turned. It was locked.

“Worth a shot.” He said.

**(o) Kick door**

Nate positioned himself sideways from the door, his dominant leg closest to it. He raised his leg and lightly tapped the area just below the knob to get a feel for where he was going to kick. He lowered his foot, took a moment to prepare himself, raised his leg again and-

“Hey!” A voice said behind him. Nate kicked the doorknob. A circle of pain assaulted the bottom of his foot. Nate yelped, lost balance, and fell down. He hopped back up, quickly turned towards the voice, and readied his gun.

It was Charlie. She stood in front of the railing of the porch, looking up at him with a bored expression despite the gun pointed at her.

“Don’t shoot.” Charlie deadpanned, waving her fingers in the air with one hand and holding the butcher’s knife with the other.

| What are you doing? |

**| Don’t sneak up on me |**

| My foot hurts |

| ... |

Nate put the gun in his the back of his pants and frowned. “Don’t sneak up on me!” Nate said. “I could have fucking shot you!”

“Why are you so jumpy today?” Charlie said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m not jumpy, I wasn’t expecting you.” Nate insisted. “I thought we were supposed to go through the houses individually. Why aren’t you at a house right now?”

“I wanted to talk to you. _Alone.”_ Charlie said.

**| Is that so? |**

| About what |

| Now? |

| ... |

Nate stared at her for a moment before smiling. He leaned over the railing and leered at her.

“What do you want to talk about?” Nate asked suggestively. Charlie stood up on her toes and flicked him on the forehead. Nate swore and pulled back.

“Not _that_ you asshole!” Charlie hissed. “You are such a pig!”

“Alright, alright, I’m _sorry.”_ Nate said, rubbing his forehead and not really sorry. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Follow me.” Charlie said, not answering him. She walked to the side of the house. Nate rotated his right ankle, making sure his foot was useable, and walked down the stairs after her.

The ground at the side of the house had been paved over, but the signs of neglect were evident by the long weeds that grew through the cracks. Nate thought, as he stepped on the escaping grass, of how his lawn was doing. It needed cutting the last time he left his house so it probably was a jungle now.  

_The last time he left the house._

Was there someone raiding his house right now, he wondered?

“So about you and your _boyfriend.”_ Charlie began suddenly. “If I remember correctly, you lied to me so I would come to the Vaughan’s house. Though you never told me why.” Nate sighed through his nose. Crap, she wanted to know. They stopped in front of the gate leading into the backyard. Charlie tested it to see if it was opened. It wasn’t. She turned to face Nate and crossed her arms.

“What did you two want to tell me?” She asked.

| I’ll tell you later |

| Vaughan will tell you |

| You have pretty eyes |

**| ... |**

Nate grinned at Charlie. Charlie flicked him in the forehead. He swore.

“Nate, answer me.” Charlie demanded.

| I’ll tell you later |

| Vaughan will tell you |

**| You have pretty eyes |**

| ... |

 “Did I ever tell you that you have pretty eyes?” Nate asked. Charlie scowled at him, her violet eyes like daggers.

**(?) Charlie will remember that**

“Nate-” She warned.

“Because you have pretty eyes.”

“-I will kick your ass.”

“Very pretty.”

“Fine!” Charlie threw her hands into the air. She turned, grabbed hold on the gate, and pulled herself up. She twisted her body and put the balls of her feet on the top. Nate was briefly alarmed by how much she looked like a vulture, balancing up there and glaring down at him.

“I’ll let it go for now.” She told him, her face tense. “But soon either you or Vaughan _will_ tell me what’s going on.” With that, she jumped off to the other side. Nate stood there for a moment, thinking agitatedly about the shitstorm that would come when Charlie found out what they’d been hiding from her. Nate shook his head. There was time to think about that later. He went to the gate and pulled himself over it.

* * *

 

They stalked through the backyard quietly as they made their way to the door. The long grass brushing against their clothes sounded like signals to whatever zombie was around. ‘Come here, come here!’ He thought he heard. ‘There’s food over here! We’re rubbing their pants! Fucking eat them!’ They crept up the porch and it made squeaking noises. ‘Squeak, eat, squeak, eat’ the stairs said.

It wasn’t that Nate had never broken into a house before, all three of them had been doing that quite a bit every since the apocalypse started and he had done it twice before then, but it was nerve racking going into a place knowing there was a good chance something would try to eat him. He would get used to it, he knew he would, but that in itself was horrific. Getting used to the _apocalypse?_ Goddamn. ‘Not like you don’t enjoy this a little’ A voice in his head said. Nate fiercely ignored it.

Charlie went up to the door and, weapon ready, tried to open it. It did, reveling a screen door behind it. She tried the screen door but it was locked.

“They locked the front door and not the back?” Nate asked. “That’s pretty stupid. A screen door isn’t going to protect shit.” Charlie cut through the mesh, proving his point.

She put her arm through the hole she cut and unlocked the door. “Doesn’t matter.” Charlie said. “What _is_ important is that there’s most likely no freaks in here.” Most likely. They had gone into homes where the relatives had left their infected family members in rooms. Usually these rooms were marked, but occasionally there had been surprise encounters with the dead. Most of them were adults, some had been children. Both Nate and Vaughan never slept well when they found kids. Charlie went unfazed.

Charlie opened the door and they both went inside.

Nate took two steps into the house and paused. Something about the house seemed off and yet familiar, Nate couldn’t think of what it was. Everything looked normal; the floor was swept, objects were clear of dust, and the place smelt as if it had been aired out; but something was wrong. Charlie noticed this as well; she also had stopped and was looking around the entranceway, confused and frowning. She walked forward and turned into the kitchen. Nate followed her.

“The kitchen smells like pie.” She said. She was flexing the hold on her knife.

| Apple pie |

| Why? |

**| I’m hungry |**

| ... |

“Great. Now I’m hungry.” Nate said. Charlie stared at him and then looked thoughtfully to the ground.

“Nate...” She said slowly, looking back up at him. “You can look in the kitchen for any supplies. I’ll look around the house for... things.” She walked away before Nate could reply.

**(o) Open cupboard**

 He opened the cupboard expecting it to be empty, but found a dozen cans.

**(o) Take cans**

“Holy shit!” Nate laughed, taking off his bag and placing the cans in. “This is awesome! And some of these have only been expired for a week! Some aren’t even expired at all!” He paused. “Wait, did I just fucking say that? Damn, I’ve been living like this too long.” He put the last can in his bag and shook it. The bag had a comforting weight. Nate smiled.

**(o) Open at drawer**

Nate opened the drawer and looking inside.

**(o) Look at can opener**

“We already have one of those.” Nate said to himself. That was one of the first things they made sure to take when they first started raiding homes.

**(o) Take can opener**

“...It wouldn’t hurt to have more.” Nate said and put it in his bag.

**(o) Look at cleaver**

The cleaver was placed in there rather haphazardly.

“I can use this.” Nate said.

**(o) Take cleaver**

Nate took the cleaver and placed the handle in his pants.

**(o) Look at pie**

It was sitting on the counter closest to the fridge, looking like it belonged in a cookbook. The smell was sweet and tangy. Nate whistled.

“Well holy shit.” Nate said. “Apple pie.”

**(o) Eat pie**

There was a small triangle spatula sitting in a triangle hole in the pie. Nate picked the spatula up, scooped out a sloppy piece of pie, and shoved it in his mouth.

After five weeks of eating canned food, unseasoned meat, and wild plants, this piece of pie was the best _anything_ he had ever eaten. Everything he would ever eat after this was going to taste unbelievably bland but he didn’t care. If he could just die with this pie in his mouth, it would be a good death. Nate made an unintelligible happy sound as he swallowed and began to scoop out more.

Just before he placed the pie in his mouth, his mind made a connection. This connection was so powerful it made him drop the spatula.

“This pie is warm.” Nate said slowly. “It was warm because it was recently cooked. Like how the floors had been recently cleaned and the objects dusted. This house feels wrong because it’s being lived in! Fuck, why didn’t I notice that befo-”

“Hey!” A voice said behind him. Nate began to turn around when a blunt object hit him in the head. Nate fell to the floor and lost consciousness for a few seconds.

When he came to he was on his back and the world around him was blurred and doubling. Some evil thing was banging dumbbells in the left side of his skull and throwing stars into his eyes. He managed to focus in time to see a foot accelerating to his face.

**< <<<<Q>>>>>**

Nate caught the foot and pushed upwards. The owner of the foot put their weight down and Nate had to strain to keep it from stomping his head.

**[E]**

Nate shoved hard against the foot and pushed upwards, causing the person to lose balance and fall backward. Nate hastily stood up and took the cleaver out of his pants. The assailant; a man, ten years older than Nate, average build; pulled himself off the ground and charged at him with a wooden baseball bat.

**(o)**

Nate backed up into the living room, raised the cleaver and brought it down on the baseball bat. The bat was cut in half. The man dropped it and swung at Nate. He missed.

**(o)**

Nate swung the cleaver vertically. It hit the man in the stomach. The man screamed and stumbled back.

**(o)**

Nate swung the cleaver horizontally. It hit the man in the shoulder and got stuck. The man wailed.

**(o)**

Nate held onto the handle and kicked the man in the chest. The cleaver came out and the man fell.

The man crawled backwards; one arm madly pulling behind him, the other limply sagging to his side, his feet kicking out and making squeaking noises on the tiled kitchen floor as he tried to escape the intruder. Nate stalked forward, eyes wide and furious. The man’s back hit something and he looked up. Charlie stared down at him curiously. The man cringed away from her and pushed himself against the wall.

“So this is what all the noise was about.” Charlie said to Nate. Nate grunted. She looked back down on the man. “You’re getting blood all over your floor sir.”

“Get out of my house.” The man quivered. “Please.”

| You need better locks |

| Why? |

**| Please? |**

| ... |

“ _Please?_ You’re going to try and be all nice and shit after you tried to bash my fucking head in?” Nate growled. The man recoiled.

“You should kill him for all the trouble he’s been giving you.” Charlie said. “He deserves it.”

“No! Please! Take whatever you want! Just leave!” The man begged.

**(o)**

Nate stepped in front of the man. The man put his arms in front of his hands and began to shake. Nate raised his arm and brought the cleaver down. There was a cracking sound and the man screamed. Charlie made a puzzled noise.

“...Did you miss?” She asked Nate. The cleaver was lodged into the wall a few inches above the man’s head. Nate took the cleaver out of the wall.

“No.” Nate said. “I’m not going to kill him.” The man stopped shaking and lowered his arms away from his face.

“...How much are you going to take?” The man asked.

| Most of it |

| Some of it |

**| None of it |**

| ... |

“We’re not taking anything from here.” Nate said. The man and Charlie gave him identical looks of surprise.

“What?” Charlie blurted out. “Why not?”

“Charles-” Nate began.

“Don’t call me ‘Charles’. What is it with you and nicknames lately?”

“-We have no reason to steal from this man. We have an entire neighborhood of unoccupied houses to go through.” He paused and looked at the man. “They _are_ unoccupied, right?”

“I believe so.” The man answered.

“See?” Nate said. “Let’s leave him alone.”

“We’ve stolen from people before.” Charlie commented. “And he has quite a bit of food so-”

“No,” Nate said. “That isn’t the same. The owners of the houses we go through aren’t using what we take. _He_ is.”

“...He tried to kill you.” She said slowly, as if that would change his mind.

“I know. And that was _fucking rude.”_ Nate said crossly. The man flinched. “But he did it for a reason so whatever, let’s go.”

Charlie stared at Nate disbelievingly before shaking her head.

“Fine.” She said. “We’ll g-”

“Guatier!” A voice from the living room cried. All three of them turned towards the voice. It was a woman around the same age as the man. She had a hammer in her hand.

“Hanna don’t-” Guatier warned. Hanna screamed and ran towards Nate. He meant to hold her still but the force of her movements and the blood on the floor caused him to fall. Hanna landed on top of him and brought the hammer down.

**< <<<<Q>>>>>**

Nate grabbed her arms and pushed them away from him. Hanna wasn’t very strong, but it was still hard to get her off of him. Nate slowly began sitting up, easing the hysterical woman off of him and-

A knife protruded out of her chest and nearly hit Nate in the stomach. He flinched as blood gushed on him. Hanna made a pained wheezing sound, dropping the hammer on the floor and touching the knife with shaking hands. Charlie moved the butcher’s knife, the woman with it, and kicked her off the blade. She fell to Nate’s left. Nate looked at woman wide eyed. The woman looked back at him, eyes equally wide, until they looked at nothing at all.

“Hanna!” Guatier bellowed. He stared at Charlie, eyes on burning with hate. _“You bitch!”_ Helunged with all his strength. Charlie stabbed him in the stomach. She pulled in out and he fell to the ground with a thud. Charlie took a kitchen rag from the drawer and wiped off the blood off her knife. Nate looked back and forth between the two bodies body, stunned.

“They’re not going to need their supplies anymore.” Charlie said offhandedly, dropping the bloody rag on the floor and moving towards the pie. She cut herself a slice, inspected it, and took a bite. The kitchen didn’t smell like pie anymore, it smelt like iron.

“Wh- what...” Nate’s voice was raspy. “What the fu-”

“Nate. I did the same thing you did for Vaughan.” Charlie said calmly. She looked at him. “Let’s focus on getting supplies.” She walked out of the kitchen and left him there with the two bodies.

 

* * *

 

**THE WALKING DEAD: REAL MONSTERS**

* * *

Nate sat on the floor, blood seeping through his pants, and thought about how he felt. Ever since everything had gone to hell, he had meditated on his emotions more that he had ever done in his entire life. He knew why he hadn’t before. He did not like how his brain worked.

It wasn’t as if the apocalypse wasn’t affecting him negatively. Seeing abandoned buildings, fighting and running from monsters did weigh down on his mind; but breaking down doors, bashing monsters’ heads in, running for his life, driving without having any fix purpose; it felt incredible.

And it was _fun_ , and he hated that it felt fun to him. It wasn’t normal. He wasn’t supposed to like any of this, and a part of him didn’t. A part of him was greatly disturbed by everything and wanted to go home. The other part of him though, the part that he found was much too large, loved it and never wanted it to end.

Then there were the deaths of other people.

Nate looked to his left at Hanna, then looked in front of him at Guatier, and barely felt anything. He was a bit sad, they both didn’t have to die and that was a shame, but nothing more. Other than his initial shock, he wasn’t angry with Charlie for killing them, he didn’t feel guilty or responsible for their deaths, and the only nausea he felt came from breathing in the smell of their blood for so long. That was all. Just like when he had killed Anya.

Nate stood up and stared down at the bodies on the ground.

“I’m a fucking _psychopath.”_ He told the bodies. In his whole life he had be scared of many things, but Nate had never be as scared of himself as he was now.

* * *

 

As he walked into the living room he noticed Charlie staring intently up the stairs.

**| What is it? |**

| We should go |

| How much stuff do you have? |

| ... |

“Charlie wha-” He began. Charlie shushed him.

“Do you hear that?” She whispered. Nate walked closer to her and listened. After a moment he heard it.

“Is that screaming?” He asked.

“I think so.” Charlie said. “What do you think it is?”

| A person |

**| A animal |**

| A zombie |

| ... |

 “It might be a dog.” Nate answered. “Maybe a parrot.” Charlie gave him an incredulous look.

**(?) Charlie will remember that**

“A dog?” She repeated, eyebrows furrowed. “You think it might be a _dog?”_

“Or a parrot.” Nate said again. Charlie closed her eyes, shook her head, and looked back up the stairs.

“Whatever it is, it needs to be dealt with.” Charlie said. “You go look and I’ll be here if you need any help.”

**| Okay |**

| Why me? |

| You come too |

| ... |

“Okay, sure.” Nate said. Charlie walked away from the stairs. He grabbed onto the railing and crept up, making as little noise as possible to take whatever it was by surprise if it happened not to be an animal. These stairs, unlike the ones outside, where well maintained and didn’t creak while he walked. He got to the top and turned towards the direction of the sound. It was coming from a room to his right. As he walked towards it, he was positive that it was not a zombie, unless zombies were learning how to scream. He stood in front of the door.

**(o) Listen at door**

Nate pressed his ear against the door. Whatever was in there was wailing as loud as it could, gasping, hiccupping, and wailing again.

“That sounds more like a person than an animal.” Nate murmured to himself. “Even if it’s not, whatever is in there sounds like it’s in pain.”

**(o) Open door**

Nate took the gun out, released the safety, and held the knob. He held his breath and quickly opened the door.

The room was painted with pastel shades of pink and blue stripes. The walls had pictures of balloon animals and circus people. The room was small and only had a garbage bin, a bookshelf, a drawer, a rocking chair, and a crib where the crying was coming from. Nate’s jaw dropped.

“This is a baby room...” Nate whispered to himself, lowering the gun. His feet moved closer to the crib with out his permission. He placed his gun on top of the drawer beside the crib, placed his hands on the railing, and looked over.

The baby was five, maybe six months old. It had the same red hair as the father but looked like the mother. Its green eyes stared into Nate’s and it stopped crying for a moment. It’s expression became quizzical, it never seen this stranger before, but then it remembered it was sad and began crying again. It raised its arms to Nate, begging to be picked up. Nate froze.

“So this is where the animal is?” Charlie said behind him. Nate looked over his shoulder at her. She walked towards the crib and stared down at the baby emotionlessly. The baby stopped crying, stared at the new stranger, and started again. Charlie raised the knife over her head.

**(o)**

Nate caught her arm before she brought the knife down.

“What the fuck are you _doing!?”_ Nate growled, roughly turning her around to face him. The baby cried harder at his tone.

“We’re not going to take care of this baby.” Charlie explained calmly. “And if we leave it here it’ll starve. I’m being _nice._ If I kill the baby now it won’t starve to death later.”

 _“Killing the baby is not an option.”_ Nate’s voice was dangerously low. His grip on her arm tightened and Charlie winced.

“Fine.” Charlie said irritated. “Let the puppy starve.” Nate let go of her arm and she backed away from him, holding the arm close to her chest. “At least shut it up. I don’t want it attracting a horde to us.” She stormed out of the room and slammed the door.

He turned towards the baby. It looked at him and raised its arms.

**(o) Pick up baby**

Nate lowered his hands into the crib, stopped a few inches from touching the baby, raised his hands, frowned, and lowered his hands again. He put his hands under its armpits and lifted. He held the baby; his arms straight and locked in position. The baby stretched its own arms towards him, wanting to be closer. He realized that his shirt was cover it’s mother’s blood and for the first time felt a pang of guilt. Nate unlocked his arms and pulled the baby into an embrace.

| Shh, Shh |

| Shut up, Shut up |

| It’s okay, it’s okay |

**| ... |**

He rocked the baby up and down without saying anything, pacing around the room as the baby cried.

**(o) Look at baby bottle**

It was on top of the drawer next to where he had placed his gun. It was half full.

“Why would they leave a bottle of milk laying around? Unless...” He closed his eyes. “Unless they were feeding you when we came.” He finished. He opened his eyes and stared at the bottle.

**(o) Pick up bottle**

Nate took the bottle and sat down on the rocking chair. He positioned the baby in the crook of his left arm and gave it the bottle. It cried around the opening for a moment before settling down and drinking. Milk trailed down the side of its mouth as it drank.

| I’m sorry |

**| Boy or girl? |**

| You’re gross |

| ... |

“Are you a boy or a girl?” Nate asked the baby. “I can’t tell by looking at you. All babies look the same to me.” The baby stared up at him but didn’t answer. The bottle was one third finished. “I’m going to assume you’re a girl.” He said.

| I’ll make it up to you |

| You’re drinking fast |

**| Rude |**

| ... |

“You’re a rude little shit.” Nate joked. “You know you’re supposed to say ‘thank you’ when people feed you, right?” The baby closed her eyes. “Fucking rude.” She drank the rest of her bottle. Nate slowly removed it from the baby’s mouth and waited for a reaction. Her eyes fluttered, but she went to sleep.

**(o) Put baby in crib**

He stood up, careful not to disturb the baby, and walked towards the crib. He looked down at the small bed. He didn’t want to let her go, but what were the alternatives? Charlie was right; they couldn’t take care of a baby now. Hell, they couldn’t take care of a baby before the apocalypse began. He sighed, shoulders dropping as he lowered the baby down. She yawned as her body met the bed. Nate went to the side, took his gun, and walked towards the door.

He opened the door. His feet won’t move. He frowned down at them. Charlie had said that the baby would die of starvation if they left her alone, but they couldn’t take care of a baby. They’d be horrible parents. But if he did nothing the baby would die. But...

 _“Fuck it.”_ Nate said.

* * *

 

The look of utter surprise on Charlie’s face was funny. The look that came after it, one of rising furry, was less funny but Nate didn’t care. It was quite hard to carry the bag on this back, the baby bag on one arm, and the baby on the other so his focus was more on that and less on Charlie’s anger.

“Nate.” Charlie said, trying not to yell. “Why are you bringing the puppy?”

**| We’re not killing her |**

| It’s not forever |

| Help me |

| ... |

“Charlie, I told you killing the baby is not an option.” Nate said sternly, which sounded odd to him because he was rarely ever stern. “If we leave her here she’ll die, and if you kill her she’ll die, so there’s really no other choice except to bring her along.” Charlie scowled and walked closer to Nate until their faces were inches away.

“You have to understand something.” Her voice was low and dark. She spoke slowly, stressing every word. “If you bring this baby, she will put our lives in danger. We need to be as safe as we possibly can. So you need to put her back where she came from, close the door, and come downstairs without any _baggage.”_   Charlie looked down at the baby disdainfully. The baby slept unaware with her head on his shoulder.

| No |

| I would |

**| I will fight you |**

| ... |

“Charlie I will _physically_ fight you for this, I swear to God.” His tone matched Charlie’s; only it was darker and more forceful. He hovered over her and glared down ferociously. “You are not going to let this baby die. If you try, I will shoot you and feed you to the goddamn zombies. _Don’t you fucking try.”_

**(?) Charlie will remember that**

The muscles in Charlie’s face twitched dangerously. She raised her arm and backhanded him across the face. His head was forced to the side and he almost lost balance. The baby moaned but didn’t wake up. He hissed in pain. Charlie turned, picked up her bag of supplies and walked out of the house.

“Fucking ow.” Nate groaned, shaking his head back and forth. The next car ride was going to be awkward and stressful, he knew that already, but he would deal with that later. He made his way to the front door, his arms already tired from all the weight he was holding. Just as he was about to reach the door a zombie grabbed hold of his bag.

“Wha-” He began to say. It was Hanna. She, it now, moaned and made a move to grab the baby. Nate stepped back, lost balance, and fell into a chair behind him. The baby made a startled noise but didn’t wake up. Nate tried to grab for his gun.

The sound of bones breaking made him pause. He looked up in time to see the monster fall to the ground. Guatier stood, broken bloody bat in hand. He swayed where he stood and looked at Nate. The bat fell from his hand.

“M-my baby...” Guatier grieved. He took a shaky step towards Nate, an arm stretched towards his child.

**| I’m sorry |**

| I’ll take care of her |

| Stay away |

| ... |

“I’m sorry.” Nate said. He was alarmed by how little of the apology was meant for the man and woman. He had felt guilt in the nursery, but looking at the dying man he understood that it was for the baby’s sake and not for the pain he caused the parents. What was _wrong_ with him?

“M-my baby...” Guatier said again. “Don’t... don’t hurt...” The man collapsed. Nate heard him gasp for air, a sound that sounded wet and painful, and then he heard him breathe no more.

* * *

 

Nate closed the door behind him. Though questions of his mental health still plagued him, he felt much better now that he outside. Charlie was looking at the supplies they had in the back of the truck. She had accumulated a large amount of goods while Nate had been occupied with the baby and thoughts of psychopathy. He thought they wouldn’t have to go through any more houses in the area if they didn’t want to, though it was always better to take as much as you could in times like these.

Vaughan was some distance away. It was his turn to stay with the truck. They always took turns staying with the vehicle while the other two went scavenging; protecting their possessions was the job of the person staying behind.

It looked as though Vaughan was talking to someone, though he couldn’t see who it was.

**(o) Put supplies in truck**

Nate walked to the back of the truck and placed the baby bag and backpack down. Charlie glared at him but said nothing.

**(o) Talk to Charlie**

Nate sighed. “Charlie-”

“You’re an asshole.” Charlie retorted.

| I know |

| You’re not a bitch? |

**| Sorry |**

| ... |

“I’m _sorry_ for making you angry.” Nate said. “I know you’re just trying to keep everyone safe. But this little girl is only five, _maybe_ six months old. I’m willing to do quite a bit to survive, but I’m not doing that.” Charlie looked up at the overcast sky and said nothing. Nate was about to turn to leave when she started talking.

“Let me give you some advice Nate.” Charlie said. Nate arched an eyebrow. “Some people say that you can’t have morals in situations such as this.” She gestured all around her. “That’s not really true. You can keep some of your morals, such as sticking by your friends or not being racist. But other things you have to forget, or you _will_ die.” She eyed the baby scornfully and looked back at Nate.

| What’s wrong with you? |

| Interesting |

**| Thanks for the advice |**

| ... |

“Thanks for the advice.” Nate said slowly. The baby turned her face and rested the other cheek on his shoulder. Charlie nodded.

**(o) Look at Vaughan**

Nate walked away from the truck and tried to get a look at who Vaughan was talking to. He walked until he could see Vaughan’s profile and froze.

"Aw _shit."_ Nate whispered under his breath.

It was nobody. Vaughan was having a conversation with _the Goddamn_ _air._

Nate pulled the collar of his shirt, frowning down at the ground. Was Vaughan losing his mind? He was mentally the weakest link out of the three of them; he was always reluctant to shoot zombies even when he was a safe distance away, he would have nightmares that would last the entire night, and he had to force himself to eat even when he had gone days without food; but to Nate’s knowledge he had never hallucinated before.

Vaughan turned towards the truck as Nate looked back up. Nate couldn’t see his facial expressions, but he could tell that the younger man was shaking. Vaughan turned back and flinched so hard his feet left the ground. He looked around, his body twisting in awkward angles and his head whipping back and forth. Eventually he stopped, shook his head, took off his glasses, and covered his eyes with his hands.

"They’re ‘gone’ now." Nate said to himself, watching Vaughan breathing heavily from afar. Whatever had been going on in his mind, looking at the truck inadvertently snapped him out of it. He made his way towards the younger man.

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

“Hey.” Nate said as he got close to Vaughan. The baby yawned. Vaughan didn’t notice the little girl.

“Nate...” Vaughan’s voice shook. He spread his trembling fingers, startled eyes peaking through. “I saw... I mean... I- she- w-what?”

**| Breathe |**

| What did you see |

| Go to the truck |

| ... |

Nate used his free hand to squeeze Vaughan’s shoulder, making him flinch.

“Breathe. You need to calm down and _breathe.”_ Nate ordered. Vaughan moved his hands away from his face and began hyperventilating.

“Okay, breathe slower than that. Slower. _Slower.”_ Nate said. Vaughan closed his eyes, concentrating his respiration until he managed to calm down. He opened his eyes and stared directly at Nate.

“I saw Anya.” Vaughan told him.

| She’s here? |

| Not possible |

**| Are you serious? |**

| ... |

Nate let go of his shoulder and groaned. “Are you serious?” He said, irritated. “You hallucinated because of your stupid guilt crap?” Vaughan stuttered incomprehensibly before stopping himself and glaring at Nate.

“I didn’t _mean_ to hallucinate!” Vaughan said. “And ‘stupid guilt crap’? You killed someone because of me, you _asshole,_ of course I feel guilty about it. So should you!”

Nate rolled his eyes. “Give me a fucking break.” He said.

“I know you think that we’re okay, but I can’t handle being angry 24 hours of the day!” Vaughan said. “I’m still mad at you and Charlie for what the both of you did.”

“Saving your life?” Nate asked incredulously.

“Murdering people!” Vaughan nearly screamed.

| I’m a murderer |

**| Listen to me |**

| You piece of shit |

| ... |

“Listen to me _._ I understand why you’re pissed off, I really do,” Nate said, trying not to yell himself and accidently wake the baby. “But you have to fucking _let it go!_ Ever since that car crashed into the house, we’ve all been in an apocalyptic situation. And that means we have to do whatever it takes to keep each other safe!” The weight of the baby he was holding punctuated the hypocrisy of his words, but he ignored it.

**(?) Vaughan will remember that**

“Keep each other safe?” Vaughan repeated resentfully. “I thought I was supposed to kill my own innocent people next ti-”

“Hey!” Charlie whispered harshly. The two men jumped and turned towards her. Vaughan nearly fell down. She was tapping the butcher’s knife on her thigh, looking like a frustrated teacher.

“You’re both being too loud! Shut the fuck up!” She whispered again, waving the knife at both of them and causing the men to back away from her. Nate looked around, expecting zombies to stumble around the corner, but none came. Vaughan frowned and looked away from her.

| Sure |

**| More scavenging? |**

| Vaughan, go |

| ... |

“Are you going to go scavenging for more supplies?” Nate asked in a quieter voice.

“ _We_ should.” Charlie answered. “The more we get the better. So _you_ ,” She pointed to Nate, “Need to stop talking to your _boyfriend_ and get to work. And _you_ ,” She pointed to Vaughan, “Need to stop being such a bitch and go to the truck.”

“Yes Mom.” Vaughan sighed and put a hand over his eyes. Nate smirked. Charlie glowered at Vaughan, tightening her hold on the weapon as she prepared to verbally rip into him, when she realized that Vaughan hadn’t noticed what he said. There had been no sarcasm in his voice or attitude in his gestures. She reluctantly let the comment go. She took a moment to fix the glasses on his face before stalking off.

| Bye |

| You suck |

**| ‘Yes Mom’? |**

| ... |

“Yes Mom?” Nate repeated, laughing a little. “Surprised Charlie didn’t kick your ass for that. What was that all about?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Vaughan said, unsmiling. He placed his glasses on his face and sighed again. He rotated and flexed his left hand.

“Whatever man.” Nate grumbled, momentary good mood gone. That was it; he didn’t have to stay here with Sir stick-up-ass any longer. He had work to do. “Go to the truck.” He turned to walk away.

“...Wait.” Vaughan said.

| Fucking bye |

| Don’t bitch at me |

**| What? |**

| ... |

Nate huffed, rolled his eyes, and turned back to Vaughan. “What?” He droned, moving the baby to the other arm. Vaughan quickly looked around to make sure Charlie wasn’t close by. He ran a hand through his hair before speaking.

“Ever since all of... _this_ happened,” Vaughan gestured all around him. “I haven’t been able to go to the doctor. I _need_ to see a doctor because...” Vaughan paused. “I think I’m getting worse. And I think hallucinations are a new symptom I’ve gotten, not just because of _guilt_.” He said this last bit with a bit of resentment, looking straight into Nate’s eyes. Nate looked away.

Vaughan sighed and closed his eyes. “I need to find a doctor...” He said.

**| We will |**

| Supplies first |

| How? |

| ... |

“We _will_ find you a doctor.” Nate said. Vaughan opened his eyes and looked at him. Nate grabbed the younger man’s arm and pulled him forward. Vaughan stumbled a bit but allowed himself to be pulled. When they were beside each other Nate turned around, draped an arm over his friend’s shoulders, and walked towards the truck.

“You’re being an irritating dick,” Nate continued. “But I saved your ass before. Why would I let you die of cancer now?” Vaughan’s shoulders, which had been tense, slowly relaxed. Vaughan looked up at Nate, mouth twitching and glassy eyed. Nate looked back down at him and Vaughan tried to say something but no words came, so he averted his eyes instead. He still didn’t notice the baby.

They walked this way until they came to the passenger’s side of the truck. Nate let him go; Vaughan put his arms on the roof and lifted himself to the top. He placed the bag of arrows on his back and the bow in his lap. For someone who was supposed to act as a watchdog, Vaughan looked no more threatening than he had when he was on the ground; to Nate he somehow looked smaller up there.

“...I have an idea” Vaughan said. The baby yawned but Vaughan took no notice of her. “From what I saw on the map, we’re not that far away from downtown. I’m sure there’s a hospital or a pharmacy there. If we can get some temozolomide pills then it will buy us more time to find a doctor.”

“Temozo-what now?” Nate asked.

“It’s a chemotherapy drug.” Vaughan explained. “When Charlie made us write down the survival info before all the wifi shut down, I made sure to research about different kinds of cancer treatments. Temozolomide is one of the ones I remember the most because it’s the first time I ever heard of chemotherapy that doesn’t involve radiation or liquid injected into you. It’s the perfect option for me because I don’t have to rely on a machine and I can give it to myself without much effort.” He rotated his left shoulder.

**| About downtown... |**

| About Charlie... |

| If we can’t find it? |

| Exit |

“Going downtown will be fucking dangerous.” Nate warned him. “There will be zombies fucking _everywhere_.”

“I know.” Vaughan said, nodding slowly. “Even if half the population of infected left the city, that still leaves... how many? Thousands? Millions? It’s risky, I know, but it might be worth it in the long run.”

**| About Charlie... |**

| If we can’t find it? |

| Exit |

“How are we going to convince Charlie that it’s worth the risk?” Nate asked. “To her knowledge, we’re both healthy.” Vaughan bit his lower lip and looked in the direction that Charlie had walked off to. Nate looked as well and saw nothing but average, assumedly people free homes.

“We’re going to say...” Vaughan paused. “We’re going to say that we might need it later. We need to be prepared for the future right? I’m sure Charlie will understand that.”

| Still lying then? |

**| Want me to tell her? |**

| Sounds good |

| ... |

“Want me to tell her?” Nate asked. Vaughan tried not to smile and failed.

“As long as you don’t tell her anything horrible like last time,” Vaughan said, trying to sound stern. “Then yes, that would be great. Thanks.”

“So I’ll tell her that we need a lifetime supply of Viagra.”

“W-what!? No!”

“Lots and lots of Viagra.”

Vaughan stuttered profusely and covered his reddening face with his hands.

**| If we can’t find it? |**

| Exit |

“What are we going to do if we can’t find it?” Nate asked. Vaughan looked down at his lap, his shoulders slumping.

“We’ll have to find a doctor faster then.” He said quietly.

**| Exit |**

“I should get back to work.” Nate told him.

“Alright,” Vaughan said. “But I want to know how you feel about going?” He looked at Nate apprehensively, his fingers playing with the string on his bow.

| Sounds good to me |

| I don’t like it |

**| You’re going anyways |**

| ... |

“You’re going to go no matter what I say.” Nate told him.

**(?) You didn’t answer Vaughan**

“I don’t have a choice.” Vaughan said apologetically. “I’m getting worse and I don’t know how much time I have.”

“Then I’m going with you.” Nate said. He moved the baby to his other shoulder. “I’m not going to leave your dumb ass behind. Besides, it’s not like we have anywhere else to go anyways.” Vaughan’s eyes took on a glassy sheen again.

“Thank you.” Vaughan sighed.

“Whatever.” Nate said. “Can you hold-”

“Nate! Start the truck!” Charlie screamed from across the street. Both men quickly turned in her direction. She came running out of a house with a box full of supplies and a dozen monsters coming after her. Vaughan tried to stand but Nate grabbed hold of his arm.

“We’ll need all the ammo we’ve gone for downtown!” Nate told him before Vaughan could protest. “Just get into the truck!” Vaughan nodded, gathered his weaponry, hopped of the roof, and entered the truck. Nate ran around the front of the truck and to the driver’s side.

**(o)**

Nate took out his keys and unlocked the door.

**(o)**

With his hand holding the keys and his other arm holding the baby, he had to use the tips of his fingers to open the door. Charlie dropped the box into the back and slammed the tonneau cover shut. Nate sat inside the truck.

**(o)**

Nate tried to put the keys in the ignition, misses, and dropped the keys.

“Shit!” He said. Charlie jumped into the truck and slammed the door.

**(o)**

Nate picked up the keys. The zombies were moving past the backlights of the truck.  

**(o)**

Nate put the keys in the ignition and turned. The engine roared. He stepped on the gas petal and sped off, leaving the creatures behind. The driver’s door flapped as he drove. The baby woke up and began to cry.

“Vaughan, hold her for a second.” He said, moving the arm holding the baby upward. Vaughan gawked at the little girl, taking her away from Nate without think about what he was doing. Nate used his now free hand to close the door shut.

* * *

 

“Nate, where did you get this baby?” Vaughan asked. He kept looking down at the baby in his lap, who he had managed to calm down after they left the neighborhood, like it was an illusion. Any moment now he would blink and the baby would be gone, his expression said. It wasn’t happening though.

| I found her |

| Not important |

**| I gave birth to her |**

| ... |

Nate took is hands off the wheel and placed the baby back onto his lap. The baby made a gurgling noise as it was moved. He placed a hand on her stomach and turned himself into a car seat.

“I gave birth to her.” Nate said casually. The baby cooed as if vouching for him.

“I’m serious.” Vaughan said, his forehead wrinkling with concern.

“So am I.” Nate insisted. “Why wouldn’t I be? It hurt like hell to push her out. Look how big she is!” He shook the baby’s tummy and the little girl let out a happy screech. Charlie flinched.

“What the fuck was that?” Charlie demanded, glaring at the baby.

“Babies have a habit of screaming when they’re happy.” Vaughan explained, smiling at the baby but still managing to look concerned. “It’s their way of laughing. I think it’s because they don’t have much control over their vocal cords yet.”

“Whatever.” Charlie said dismissively. She looked at Nate and frowned. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to the hospital downtown.” Nate told her. Charlie raised her hands and looked at Nate like he had lost his mind.

 _“Why?”_ Charlie groaned.

| For future needs |

| For trading |

**| Viagra |**

| ... |

“Because we need a lifetime supply of Viagra.”  Nate snickered. Vaughan stuttered incoherently, his face turning red, before muffling an embarrassed scream into the palms of his hands. Charlie closed her eyes and dragged her hands down her face. The baby sucked on her tiny fist.

“Two things.” Charlie said, opening her eyes. “One, you are not _fifty_. You don’t _need_ that. And two, I highly doubt your hand is going to care that you can’t keep it up.” Nate laughed so hard he couldn’t drive. He took his foot off the gas pedal and forced himself not to double over and accidentally crush the baby. The baby looked up at him with wide and confused eyes.

“Can we not talk about this?” Vaughan begged. “The reason we need to go to the hospital is because we need to stockpile on as much medicine as we can.”

“We can just go through the houses and take what we need from there.” Charlie told him.

“No.” Vaughan spoke through his teeth. Nate slowly stopped laughing. “We need to go to the hospital. They’ll be a bigger variety of medicine we can take. We can’t just rely on houses for the things we need. That’s stupid.”

"Stupid." She repeated. _"I'm_ not stupid." Nate drove again.

"I never said you were."

"Nothing I do it stupid."

"Thinking that houses will give us everything _is_."

"What the hell is _wrong_ with you, fuckface!?"

"...Nothing." Vaughan leaned forward, taking off his glasses and placing his right hand on his forehead as he rotated and flexed his left. It looked as though Vaughan was trying to keep his brain from leaking hot liquid out of his head. His face contorted briefly; his eyes squinted shut, his mouth disappeared into a tight line, and he hissed out air; before his features relaxed all at once. He leaned back into the chair and sighed.

An uncomfortable silence settled in the truck. The baby didn’t notice. She had made it her mission to try and touch the steering wheel. The landscape outside was transforming from mainly residential areas to small businesses. They would be downtown soon, but the distance was too far for Nate to be sitting in awkward silence.

| You two need to stop |

**| Honeymoon's over? |**

| [Tell a story] |

| ... |

"I guess the honeymoon stage is over huh?" Nate asked, scratching his neck. Charlie scowled at him.

"You just couldn't let it be quiet in here, could you?" Charlie huffed. "You just _had_ to say something, you and you big ass mouth. Do you ever go long periods of time without taking? I bet you don't." Vaughan frowned and closed his eyes.

**| I don't in my sleep |**

| I'm making things comfortable |

| Fuck you then |

| ... |

"I don't talk in my sleep." Nate told her. He turned on to the highway.

"I don't believe you." Charlie deadpanned.

"You don't?"

"No."

"Then sleep with me and find out." Nate offered. Charlie rolled her eyes but grinned a bit. Vaughan, however, did not find this amusing.

"I'm right here." Vaughan said without opening his eyes. "Please stop." Charlie crossed her arms.

"And why should he?" She challenged. "You haven't been a good boyfriend. I'm sure that Nate would do a much better job than you, seeing as you've been a little _bitch_ for the last month." Vaughan's mouth twitched, his shoulders dropped and his head lowered, but he did not open his eyes nor replied.

“I’m confused.” Nate said. “Not even twenty minutes ago you backhanded me in the face, and now you think I’d be a good boyfriend?”

“I never said you would be a _good_ boyfriend, I said you’d be better than this twink.” She corrected. “Nate, compliment me." Her eyes dared Vaughan to say something. He didn't. Nate let his eyes leave the road for a moment to look between both of his friends. Charlie had placed her hands on Vaughan's right leg, tapping her fingers against it as she patiently waited for praise. Vaughan sat still, his mouth twitching again.

| You're smart |

| You're hot |

**| You look like a boy |**

| ... |

Nate looked back at the road.

"You look like a boy." He said casually. Charlie stared blankly at him, letting the words bounce around in her head before she began screeching. Vaughan's eyes opened wide.

**(?) Charlie and Vaughan will remember that**

"I said _compliments_ Nate!" She shouted.

"A very pretty boy." Nate added. Vaughan's body began to tremble. He pressed his lips together and covered his mouth, but he couldn't hold it in. He threw his head back and began to laugh uncontrollably. Nate smiled and drove around a zombie standing in the middle of the road.

"This isn't funny! I do _not_ look like a boy!" Charlie protested.

"There- there was this one time where... " Vaughan tried to speak through his laughter. "Where this gay guy was hitting on her because he thought she was a 'pretty boy' too and- and then... the boyfriend came and... _do you remem-"_ Vaughan found it physically impossible to finish sentence and kept on laughing. Nate, thinking back to the moment Vaughan was referring to, laughed too.

"You two are fucking assholes!” Charlie said. “That man sic-ed his dog on me and I almost _died!"_

Nate and Vaughan laughed harder, the older man had to stop driving again. The baby happy-screeched.

* * *

 

“I still think _this_ is fucking stupid.” Charlie grumbled. They walked down the street where the hospital was. Nate had parked the truck a block away from the hospital after the three of them had reluctantly agreed that, if the hospital were packed with zombies and they had to get away, it would be better to outrun them and then drive off than park closer and be overwhelmed before they could leave.

“There isn’t going to be any medication left in the hospital.” Charlie continued to complain. Nate felt her glaring at the back of his head. “It would have been one of the first places people raided when they realized things weren’t going to be fixed. We’re going to go into the hospital, see nothing, and then the zombies will come and _fucking eat us.”_ Vaughan shook his head.

“I disagr- Whoa!” He tripped. Nate stopped walking and turned to look. Vaughan’s arms spun has he tried to keep himself from falling. He hopped once before finding his footing and balancing out. Charlie raised an eyebrow at him.

“Remember,” Vaughan went on like nothing happened. “When the sick started turning into monsters, the government told everyone to keep their sick at home and stay _away_ from the hospitals? Even though people didn’t know where the disease came from, they treated hospitals like ground zero for the virus. No one would have wanted to go there for supplies.” Vaughan rotated his left shoulder, stopped, and rotated his wrist.

“...You have a point.” Charlie admitted after a moment. “But it’s still dangerous.”

| It’ll be fine |

| We’ll be careful |

**| Where’s your balls? |**

| ... |

“Charles, where did your balls go?” Nate joked, walking forward again. He tilted a head in her direction. “You were so brave half an hour ago.”

**(?) Charlie and Vaughan will remember that**

“It has nothing to do with _bravery_ Nate. It’s common sense.” Charlie said. “And stop calling me Charles!” Nate turned around and walked backwards. He moved the baby away from his chest, lifted her in front of his head, and made her face Charlie.

“What you need,” He said. “Is some baby motivation.” He cleared his throat and began to speak in a high voice. _“You can do it Charlie! You just have to believe in yourself! Yay!”_ He shook the baby. Vaughan snickered and Charlie rolled her eyes. _“Yay!”_ He shook the baby again.

“Nate, I think you should stop.” Vaughan chuckled. “The baby looks like she’s going to puke.” Nate turned the baby back around. She pouted at him and looked a bit green.

| Oops |

**| Don’t puke |**

| Sorry |

| ... |

“Don’t puke on me, you gross ass baby.” Nate told her before settling the baby back onto his chest.

“You know, for someone who thinks that babies are gross you handle one pretty well... _ish.”_ Vaughan said.

“Oh please.” Nate snorted. “I’m horrible with kids. I’m surprised this one isn’t dead yet.”

“We’re here.” Charlie said. Nate stopped walking and looked to his right. The other buildings on the street had an illusionistic normality to them. If the few broken windows, blood, and dead bodies could be ignored then the buildings only looked momentarily neglected, as if someone had meant to maintain the buildings while the entire population went on a massive fieldtrip and had forgotten their duties.

The hospital, on the other hand, made no attempt to appear as if things were normal. Unlike the other buildings that had very little damaged windows, almost all the windows in the hospital were broken, bloodstained, or both. There were bullet holes on its structure, especially around the windows, which gave Nate the mental image of people shooting zombies that were trying to crawl out of them. The fact that many hole filled bodies, not all zombies, where littered on the ground made him believe that was what had happened.

The worst aspect of this place was the front door. It was boarded up multiple times from up to bottom. There were words written in spray paint. All capitals.

“Please don’t.” Vaughan read aloud. _Please don’t._ To Nate, those words where worse than any ‘Beware’, ‘Don’t open’, or ‘Dead inside’ sign that could ever be. Those other signs always felt like there was a challenge inside of the warning, secretly daring people to disobey. Not this one though. This one felt like there was real concern for whoever came across the hospital. Like it couldn’t warn people of the danger because the danger was too great for words, so it could only _beg_ people not to go inside.

“I’m going to ask the both of you one last time.” Charlie said, turning away from the hospital and looking at them. “Is the risk of going into this hospital really worth whatever we might find?” Vaughan and Nate looked at each other. A wordless conversation passed through the two of them.

Nate arched an eyebrow. ‘Do you still want to do this?’

Vaughan raised his hand to the side of his head and tapped it with a finger. ‘I still have brain cancer.’ Nate nodded.

Vaughan spoke up. “I think it’s worth it.” Charlie inspected the two of them, frowned, and looked back at the door.

“Alright then.” She said. “We’re going to have to find another way in though. It’ll be too noisy to break off the boards on the door.” Vaughan walked towards the bodies and Charlie walked back and forth on the street, inspecting the hospital.

“Well, this seems like it’ll take some time.” Nate told the baby. “You want to help?” The baby cooed at him and touched his face.

“Great.” Nate said smiling.

**(o) Talk to Charlie**

“Aren’t you going to help?” Nate asked, stopping Charlie midstride. She frowned at Nate before looking back at the hospital.

“I _am_ helping.” Charlie explained shortly. “I’m looking at the hospital from farther back to see if I notice anything the two of you don’t from looking up close. Are _you_ helping by distracting me?”

“Bwah!” The baby interjected.

“Yeah, _bwah!”_ Nate agreed. Charlie rolled her eyes and resumed walking.

**(o) Show baby**

Nate turned the baby towards Charlie. Charlie stopped walking.

“...Why are you pointing the puppy at me?” Charlie asked.

“She’s inspecting you.” Nate told her. “Seeing if you know a way inside the building.” Charlie stared at Nate and then walked away.

“She has no respect for your expertise.” Nate informed the little girl. This did not bother the baby. Nate walked towards the hospital.

**(o) Look at door**

Please don’t. Those words still bothered him. He knew something bad would happen if he went in, but what choice did he have? Vaughan needed the medication. Please don’t.

“Damn...” Nate said to himself.

**(o) Show baby**

“You see that drool-o-rama?” Nate asked as he pointed the baby to the door. “That’s someone trying to warn us not to go in. We’re not listening because we’re dumb.” The baby grabbed at the boards. She pulled, but nothing happened.

“Nice try.” Nate said as he moved the baby away from the door. “We can’t break the boards down anyways. It’ll make too much noise.”

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

Vaughan stood hunched over on the dying grass, looking at the bodies on the ground and loosely hugging himself.

“Figure out anything?” Nate asked Vaughan as he walked closer to him. Vaughan kept staring at the bodies on the ground.

“I keep hoping that they killed all the zombies whenever this happened.” Vaughan gestured his head towards the pile of bodies. “But... I don’t want _this_ to happen to us. I don’t want my cancer to be the reason we all die.” Nate looked away from Vaughan.

“...Let’s focus on finding a way inside.” Nate said. Vaughan looked up at him, nodded, and looked back at the bodies.

**(o) Show baby**

Nate turned the baby towards Vaughan. After pausing for a moment, he raised the baby in front of his head and cleared his throat.

 _“You might be sick but you look good to me!”_ Nate said with a high voice, moving the baby as if she were the one talking. Vaughan looked at baby and tilted his head, confused. _“Don’t worry about your cancer! We’re going to find you a doctor and you’re going to be okay! Yay!”_ Nate shook the baby. Vaughan stared at her before a smile slowly grew on his face.

“...Thank you.” Vaughan said. He straightened his back.

 _“Let’s go look for a way inside!”_ The ‘baby’ cheered.

“Okay.” Vaughan said with a nod.

**(o) Look at window**

Nate walked up to the window. There was a large hole in the center, the rest of the glass pointing to it like large knives. It was directly above all the bodies.

“If we can break the glass away we could just pull ourselves through.” Nate said to himself. “But how are we going to break it without making noise?”

**(o) Show baby**

“You see all this glass?” He asked the baby. “We have to find a way to- Shit!” The baby grabbed hold of one of the pieces of glass. She didn’t hurt herself yet. He carefully let go of one arm supporting the baby’s weight and used it to slowly remove the baby’s hand from the glass. As he was moving her hand, and internally swearing about the little brat’s stupidity, he felt the glass move.

“You could have cut your hand, you dumbass!” Nate chastised when he finally removed her hand from the window. “...You did give me an idea though. I can just pull the glass out of the window.”

“Ah!” The baby said.

“No, not ‘ah’, you’re still a dumbass.” Nate replied.

**(o) Pull out glass**

“Hey Vaughan.” Nate called. Vaughan walked up beside him.

“Ye-” Vaughan began to ask until he suddenly had an armful of baby. He lost balance for a moment before straightening out. The baby cooed at him and tried to grab his glasses.

“Thanks.” Nate said. He took of his jacket and began pulling out the pieces of glass, holding the jacket in his hands to protect them from the sharp edges. Charlie noticed what he was doing and walked towards him. It took Nate a minute to get all the pieces out.

“There we go.” Nate said when he was done. He opened his jacket and saw multiple holes varying size ripped into it. He thought about shaking his jacket out and putting it back on, but changed his mind and draped it over the window. He placed his arm on the ledge and turned towards Vaughan and Charlie.

“You ready?” He asked the both of them.

“No, but let’s go.” Charlie and Vaughan said in unison. Charlie’s tone was irritable and edgy. Vaughan voice was low and filled with apprehension. Nate sighed and pulled himself through the window. He took a flashlight out of his backpack and turned it on. Vaughan handed him the baby and went through, falling on the floor when he lost balance. Charlie went through as Vaughan was standing back up.

Nate pointed the flashlight in front of them. There were bullet holes in the walls, though not as many as there had been on the front of the building. Papers littered the floor. Dark blood was splattered over the walls and pooled on the ground. It was dark were the light from outside wasn’t reaching, and this darkness seemed more dangerous than Nate had ever seen before. He knew it was just in his head, but it looked like the darkness was _eating_ the light instead of fading into it.

“We are going to go in.” Charlie whispered abruptly as she took her flashlight out and turned it on. “We are going to take whatever we can find as quickly as we can and then we are fucking _out._ Understand?” Nate and Vaughan nodded.

“We have to find the pharmacy first.” Vaughan said as he took out his flashlight. He turned it on and the light from his flashlight circled around the hallway as he rotated his left wrist.

“There’s a map on wall at the end of the hallway.” Nate told them, pointing his flashlight to it. They walked forward. Another hallway started at the end of the hallway they were in. When they reached the end, Nate held his hand out. Vaughan and Charlie stopped. Nate looked both ways, making sure both ends were clear, and walked in front of the map. The other two followed.

**(o) Look at map**

“We have to go right from where we are and walk down to the end of the hallway.” Nate said, tracing the path with his fingers. ”Then turn left and walk until we see the pharmacy.”

“That isn’t very far.” Vaughan observed.

“Yeah, if there wasn’t the possibility of a monster popping out at you.” Charlie said. They all paused at that comment before Nate turned right and continued walking. Vaughan and Charlie followed him.

The baby was being mercifully quiet as they made their journey down the corridors of the hospital. Even so, their footfalls sounded like clashing cymbals to their ears no matter how gently they walked, their breathing like trumpets no matter how lightly they respired, and their heartbeats banged like war drums no matter how hard they tried calm down. Nate thought the monsters would hear them, even though he knew they were being too quiet for that to happen. The creatures would hear them, the noise they were making would be unacceptable to their dead ears, and they would sprint to the three of them and they would be eaten alive for daring to come here.

Nothing like that happened. They found the pharmacy and went inside without any trouble. Though they still weren’t safe, Vaughan took a huge sigh of relief and leaned against the wall. Nate looked around.

“Aw shit.” He said. Vaughan almost asked him what was wrong until he noticed the state of the pharmacy for the first time. There were a few medicine bottles and boxes laying around, but other than those stray items the room was stripped bare. Even the storage room in the back of the pharmacy was open, and as far as Nate could see that was empty too.

Vaughan stuttered incomprehensibly, completely surprised by this turn of events. Charlie looked mildly annoyed.

“There are some bottles still lying around.” Nate told the other two. “We take what we can and we’ll leave. Vaughan, you see that room in the back? Go in and see if you can find anything. Charlie, you pick up whatever is on the ground here.” Charlie nodded and got to work. Vaughan forced himself to move towards the room in the back. Nate started walking after him when Charlie spoke up.

“One of you is sick.” Charlie told him. Nate looked at her, wide eyed.

**| We weren’t bitten |**

| No we aren’t |

| How’d you find out? |

| ... |

“We weren’t bitten Ch-” Nate began.

“That’s not what I mean.” Charlie interrupted him. “When you called me on the phone, you lied to me because you wanted me to come right away. You wanted to tell me that one of you was sick. I don’t know why you had to take the roundabout way but that’s not important. Which one of you is sick? Is it Vaughan? Is it you? The both of you?” Charlie frowned. “We’re you and Vaughan lying about _lying_ before? Did you get my boyfriend sick?”

“Are you... are you asking me if I gave Vaughan an _STD?”_ Nate asked, astonished that she was suggesting that.

“Did you?” Charlie asked.

“Fucking _no_ Charlie!” Nate said a bit too loud. They both paused and looked around. No zombies came.

“Then what is it?” Charlie demanded. “Which one of you is sick and what do you have?”

**| It’s Vaughan |**

| I’m sick |

| No one is sick |

| ... |

Before Nate could speak Charlie raised her hand.

“I changed my mind. Don’t tell me now.” Charlie told him. “We don’t have luxury to talk much, in fact I shouldn’t have distracted you. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.” Charlie frowned at him. “But the moment we get outside you and your _boyfriend_ are going to tell me exactly what’s going on. And if you try to keep it from me any longer I will kick both of you in the balls _I swear to God.”_

Nate raised a hand in the air. “Alright. Okay.” He said.

“Good. Now get whatever it is that you or Vaughan or the _both_ of you need and let’s get the hell out of here.” Charlie said. She turned her attention back to the ground and picked out more stray bottles. Nate moved away from her and walked to the back room.

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

He saw movement in the dark room and pointing his flashlight at it. Vaughan flinched when the light hit him and nearly fell over.

“Vaughan-” Nate began.

“Nate, I can’t any temozolomide!” Vaughan said after he forced himself to stop stuttering.

**| You said that quickly |**

| Look harder |

| It’s okay |

| ... |

“How do you say that word so quickly?” Nate wondered. “I mean shit, I can’t even say it speaking normally.”

“Nate I’m being serious!” Vaughan whispered as loudly as he could. “I can’t find it! What am I supposed to do? Will we have to go to another hospital? Did I risk all of our lives for no reason? I-” He put his hands to his head and looked at the ground. “What am I going to do?”

**| Breathe first |**

| You’re really annoying |

| The hospital has more meds |

| ... |

“The first thing you’re going to do is breathe, _slowly_.” Nate put a hand on his shoulder. Vaughan lowered his arms and slowed his breathing down. After a few dozen breaths he looked up at Nate.

“Now, you’re going to wait for me to come back.” Nate told him. Before Vaughan could ask what he meant Nate continued. “I’m going to look around. I’m sure the hospital has more than one place where they keep their medication. I’ll try to find it. You keep looking in there, maybe you’ll find something.” Nate let go of Vaughan’s shoulder.

“Alright.” Vaughan said. “Be careful.” Nate nodded and walked away. Charlie didn’t look at him when he passed her and walked out of the pharmacy.

**(o) Look at baby**

He went two halls away from the pharmacy when he realized that his arms felt very tired. He looked at the baby and the baby stared back at him.

“You get really heavy after a while, you know that?” Nate told the baby. The baby didn’t care. She rested her head on his shoulder and wiggled a bit.

“Rude ass baby.” Nate said under his breath. He found an elevator and went towards it.

**(o) Look at sign**

There was a sign near the elevator that showed what kind of practice was done on each floor. Cancer treatment was on floor five.

“I have to go up five flights of fucking stairs with this heavy ass baby.” Nate groaned. “Goddamn it.” He turned to his right, saw the doors for the stairs, and walked.

**(o) Look at doors**

There were multiple pieces of metal shoved in between the handles of doors. All of them had a slight bend that pointed forward.

“I better pull these out if I’m going to get up stairs. I just hope whatever these were keeping in are gone now.”

**(o)**

He pulled one out and placed it on the floor.

**(o)**

And then another.

**(o)**

And another.

**(o)**

And another.

**(o)**

Another.

**(o)**

The second last one was out.

**(o)**

“There.” Nate said as the final piece of metal came out.

**(o) Listen at door**

Nate put his ear to the door and listened. He thought he hear the door creak but nothing more.

**(o) Open door**

Nate moved the baby to the other arm and held onto the handle.

“Ready?” He asked the baby. The baby sighed. Nate opened the door, leaning his free shoulder on the edge to keep it open, and pointed his flashlight.

The corridor was packed with zombies.

Nate stepped back and tried to force the door closed. The bodies of the monsters stopped the door from closing all the way. Nate ran. His arms were heavy. The moans of zombies trailed after him. Nate almost fell. A door broke as he past it and more zombies came out. Nate’s arms left weak. He turned the corner and nearly collided with a zombie. He moved out of the way. It grabbed for him and missed. Nate ran faster. He almost dropped the baby. She didn’t cry. The moans were getting louder. Nate made it to the pharmacy and had to put the baby down on a counter before he accidentally let her fall. His arms felt weighed down by stones.

“Charlie! Vaughan! We got to go _now!”_ He screamed. Charlie and Vaughan didn’t wait for an explanation and followed him as he ran out the pharmacy. They sprinted down the halls, the lights of their flashlights dancing crazily all around them, until they made it to the window they first came out of and jumped through.

Both Nate and Charlie made it to the other side unharmed, but Vaughan landed badly and his head hit the ground. Charlie helped him up.

“My head...” Vaughan groaned. “I was already having a headache and... fuck...”

“Let’s get back to the truck. We don’t need to be here anymore.” Charlie said. Nate gave a small nod, irritated with himself. He ruined their chance at getting the cancer pills and now-

“Nate?” Vaughan asked, his face tense with pain. “Where’s the baby?” Nate looked at him blankly, wondering what the hell he was talking about, until he noticed that his arms felt much lighter than they had before. Faintly, he heard the baby crying from inside.

“Oh my God.” Nate said, his voice slowly filling with terror. He moved towards the window when Charlie grabbed his arm.

“Leave the baby.” Charlie told him. Nate stared at her. A dark haze passed over his eyes.

“...What?” He growled, his voice low and deadly.

“If you go in there, you’ll die. If you bring the baby out here, zombies from all over will come and overwhelm us before we can leave. You can fight me, you can shoot me, but I am telling the truth.” Charlie said quickly. Nate looked away from her. She was right. “We have to-”

“No!” Vaughan cried through his pain. “Nate, you have to get her! I know you don’t like children and I know you said we have to do anything to survive, but she’s just a _baby!_ Please! You h-” Vaughan couldn’t finish, his migraine was too strong. He gripped his head and groaned.

“Nate, either we _all_ die or the three of us get to live.” Charlie told him, letting go of his arm. “That’s what your choices _really_ are.” Nate looked at Charlie, then Vaughan, and then through the window. He should go, take Charlie and Vaughan and get out of the city as quickly as he could. He barely knew the baby. He didn’t even know her name. He didn’t know if she really was a _she_ at all. He didn’t owe her anything. His friends were is priority, not some stranger he found.

He could still hear the baby cry.

| Leave |

**| Get baby |**

Nate ran to the window and threw himself back inside.

 _“Nate!”_ Charlie screamed.

“Go to the truck!” He screamed back. They wouldn’t be able to get inside, he still had the keys, but he didn’t care. His feet barely touched the ground as he dashed towards the pharmacy. He saw zombies slowly trudging towards the crying sounds and pulled out his gun. He shot, he dodged, he shoved, and ran around all the monsters that came his way.

Then the crying turned into the worst sound Nate ever heard. It was a shrill, panicked noise that hit such a high octave that it could break glass, and it got higher and higher as Nate ran forward. It was filled with hysterical pain, a sound that only people in hell could empathize with. And it was coming from a _baby,_ that was the worst part, it was coming from a child and children were _never_ supposed to make sounds like that.

Then it stopped. It didn’t gradually turn into sniffles and then soft moaning sounds like when Vaughan had calmed her down in the truck, and it didn’t fade away like when Nate had fed her in the nursery. Just stopped. Like it hadn’t been there at all.

Nate stopped in front of the pharmacy when this had happened, zombies all around him but not noticing his presence, not yet. If he had just left when the crying ceased to be, then it wouldn’t have been as terrible. The sounds of the baby would have haunted him but he wouldn’t have had visuals to go with them. Unfortunately, he didn’t go. He stayed standing there, looking into the pharmacy.

And when the zombie walked out with a bloody mess in its hands, he saw  _exactly_ what had happened to the baby.

* * *

 

“Nate, where are we going?” Charlie asked again. Nate didn’t answer her. He kept his eyes on the road. Distantly he realized that Charlie had been asking him this for the past hour. In this same distant and robotic part of his brain he had also been evaluating how he felt again.

He had been in serious emotion pain due to the baby’s death. It felt as someone had electrocuted his soul. The guilt, sadness, the what-ifs and anger had hit him so fast that his brain didn’t know how to handle it. So his mind simply decided to shut all his emotions off. And now he was driving aimlessly.

He found this fascinating in a cold and clinical way.

He thought that he must have not gone through something like this before if his brain decided that the best way to deal with all of these emotions was to not deal with them at all. That was quite pathetic, he thought he was stronger than that. Oh well.

He also found it odd that the baby’s death did not effect how he felt about the deaths the other people. Nate assumed at one point that he was only suppressing his guilt towards the people he hurt, and if were to feel something one day then all the guilt from what happened to Anya and Hanna and Guatier would come flooding in and he would be a wreck. That hadn’t happen. His feelings towards them had stayed the same.

Nate was interested in what that said about him. Was he really a psychopath? Was he still suppressing his guilt of their deaths and not realizing it? Or was something else wrong with him? Nate wanted to know, though it wasn’t as if anyone could tell him.

“Nate.” Charlie said sternly. Nate turned his eyes off the road and expressionlessly stared at Charlie. She looked frustrated and a bit scared. Nate couldn’t remember if Charlie had ever been scared of him before. Vaughan was sleeping, his head tapping gently against the window whenever the car bumped. Nate looked away from Charlie and stared in front of him.

The sky was dark. There were stars out. Nate was vaguely confused. It had been the afternoon when he got into the truck and drove out of the city. Had he been driving the entire time? He looked at the gas gauge and saw that it was almost empty. It had almost been full when he got into the truck.

“We need gas.” Nate said. He noticed the emotion had left his voice as well and also found that interesting. He pulled to the parking lot of a restaurant and stopped the truck. He got out, felt pressure in his bladder, saw a restroom and walked in.

When he finished his business, he stepped out of the stall and saw Charlie standing there. He stared at her in the broken down, strong smelling bathroom.

| Hello |

**| This is the male’s bathroom |**

| Go away |

| ... |

“This is the male’s bathroom.” He told her. Nate went to the sink to wash his hands. The sink didn’t work.

“Nate, you have to snap out of it.” Charlie said firmly. “I let you act like you’re brain dead for the last _five hours_ but you have to stop. Now.” Nate blinked.

**| Five hours? |**

| Leave me alone |

| Okay |

| ... |

“Five hours?” Nate said aloud. “I see.” Charlie growled. She walked closer Nate, grabbed his collar, and pulled him closer to her. Nate let himself be pulled.

“I don’t understand why you feel so bad now.” Charlie snarled. “You told me that you barely felt _anything_ when you killed that bitch before, and you hardly give a shit when I killed the parents of that goddamn baby your so hung over! The puppy was just another obstacle in our way, so just get over her like you got over the others alred-” Nate grabbed Charlie’s arms and slammed her into a stall door. It made a loud bang as her back collided with metal. Nate’s eyes burned into hers. He had snapped out of it.

“I don’t understand why you can’t get over it. You’ve killed before.” Charlie told him.

| You knew |

| Shut up |

**| Not children |**

| ... |

“Not. Fucking. _Children!”_ Nate roared. “I never killed a child, you sick fuck!”

“So that’s the problem?” Charlie sounded genuinely curious. “It was her age?” Nate pulled her back from the stall door and slammed her back into it. She groaned and shook her head.

**| Never again |**

| I hate you |

| Would you kill us? |

| ... |

“Never again! Do you hear me!?” Nate thundered. “If we come across another child, none of us are killing _shit!_ Do you understand!?”

“I understand that _you’re_ not going to.” Charlie said. “But I’m not letting anybody put us in danger.” Nate was shaking with rage. He pulled her back and slammed her back onto the stall door even harder now. Charlie hissed in pain.

“I’m going to kill you.” Nate said in a low voice.

“No you won’t.” Charlie told him.

| Fuck you |

| Not today |

**| [Kill Charlie] |**

| ... |

Nate took his hands off of Charlie’s shoulder and wrapped them around her neck. Charlie flinched, her eyes bulged, and that look of fear passed over her again. Nate laughed. It was low and unstable.

**(?) Charlie will remember that**

“Whose not doing what now, bitch?” Nate asked. He squeezed his hands. Charlie’s fear grew, but after a moment the fear left her face and she gave Nate a bored look.

“Nate.” She said with some difficulty. “If you’re going to kill me, you have to squeeze harder than that.” Nate looked at his hands and tried to press down. He couldn’t. Charlie slowly moved her hands on top of his. He flinched and tried to choke her again. He still couldn’t do it. Charlie held his hands and slowly moved them away from her neck. He lowered his head and let her move his hands to his sides.

“...Okay,” Charlie said. “If we’re done here then we need to-”

The bathroom door flew open and Vaughan came in, his bow and arrow ready to fire. Charlie and Nate froze.

“Vaughan?” Charlie asked. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Where are Charlie and Nate?” Vaughan demanded. Nate and Charlie looked at each other confused before looking back at Vaughan.

“...That’s us.” Charlie said. Vaughan shook his head furiously.

“No. You’re not them.” Vaughan said, pointing his weapon at her. “Where are they? _What have you done with my friends!?”_

“Oh shit.” Nate murmured. “He’s hallucinating.” Charlie stared at him, baffled. “Charlie, don’t say anything. Let me deal with this.”

“She isn’t Charlie!” Vaughan screamed. He pointed the bow and arrow at Nate.

| It’s us |

**| You’re right |**

| What do you see? |

| ... |

“You’re right.” Nate said, slowly raising his hands in the air. “We aren’t your friends. But we know where they are.” Charlie gawked at him.

“Where are they?” Vaughan asked with a trembling voice.

“I’ll tell you.” He said. “But you have to deal with the man behind you first.” Vaughan spun around. Nate ran and tackled him. They both went flying out of the bathroom. When they hit the ground outside Vaughan rolled away from Nate, stood up, and tried to get his arrow ready. Nate stood up and ran towards him.

**(o)**

Nate punched Vaughan hard in the stomach. Vaughan dropped his weapon and held his midsection, wheezing as he tried to keep upright.

**(o)**

Nate drew his arm back and punched him in the face. Vaughan’s head whipped to the side and his glasses flew off. He collapsed to the ground. Nate stood above him and waited for him to get up. He didn’t.

“God, I hope I didn’t hurt him too badly.” Nate sighed as he knelt down beside younger man. Charlie came out of the bathroom and stood behind him.

“That is fucking _it!”_ Charlie said. “I want to know what you two are hiding from me right now! No more lies, no more ‘pretty eyes’ shit! I want to know _now!”_ Nate moved Vaughan onto his back.

 _“Nate!”_ Charlie screamed. Nate looked at her.

**| He has cancer |**

| He’ll tell you |

| Why should we? |

| ... |

Nate looked back at Vaughan. “He has cancer.” Nate said quietly. He felt Charlie stare at him.

“What?” Charlie asked. Nate put to fingers to Vaughan’s neck and checked his pulse. It was beating fast but slowing down.

“He has a tumor in his brain. It’s at stage three and his doctor told him that his chances aren’t very good. I shouldn’t have hit him in the head...” Charlie went quiet. When she spoke up, her voice was very low and firm.

“We’re not leaving him.” Charlie said. “He’s _mine._ You don’t mess with my shit.” Vaughan moved. He groaned, opened his eyes. Nate grabbed his shoulders and helped him to a sitting positioned. Vaughan looked around, momentarily lost in his own head, before becoming slowly more aware of his surrounding. He looked at Nate.

“We didn’t find any medication...” Vaughan said slowly. “I put the two of you in danger and a baby died because of me...”

“Vaughan!” Charlie interrupted. “When were you going to tell _me_ you had cancer!?” He looked up at her, startled and confused. His body tensed up and be began to stutter; trying to explain himself, trying to apologize for not telling her sooner and getting sick in the first place. Then his body slowly relaxed and he began to laugh. He was smiling but his laughter sounded like sobs. Nate stood up and walked away from the angry woman and the hysterical man.

He found Vaughan’s glasses, picked them up, and looked up at the sky. The stars were still beautiful even after everything had gone to hell. He found himself wishing he were put there. He would suffocate from the lack of oxygen and the pressure of space would destroy his insides, but at least he would be with the stars and not here where everything had gone to shit.

“God, I need a drink.”


	3. Hatred Of Thieves

_This game series adapts to the choices you make._

_The story is tailored by how you play._

TELLTALE GAMES

presents

in association with

SKYBOUND ENTERTAINMENT

 

Nate lay in a field of flowers. He watched the plants sway in the breeze and brush against him. The plants perfumed the air and made it sweet and musky. Nate noticed that the scents were weak, as if he smelled everything from far away. He didn't know how this was possible as he was completely surrounded by flowers, but the longer he laid there the more it felt like his senses were distanced from his body.

He was aware that these were the same flowers that he had seen a little over five weeks ago, the ones that had been used for the flower memorial in honor of the man who was purposely run over. Vaughan had told him that he hoped there would be no more violence in his neighborhood, but there was violence everywhere now.

Nate lifted himself off the ground and looked around. The field of flowers met the afternoon sky on the horizon. There was no disruption in the meeting of these two planes except for a building to Nate's right.

**(o) Look at building**

"...I feel sick." He said to himself. His voice was low; he didn't want anything to know that he was here, but he didn't know why this was necessary. To his knowledge, he was the only person in this peaceful yet desolate world. He also didn't know why looking at the building made his muscles tense, his stomach cramp, and caused him to feel an overwhelming sadness that started in his brain and leaked down to pool in his chest.

He shook his head and began to turn away. He couldn't remember why the building was causing him so much physical pain and emotion distress, but that wasn't important. He didn't have to look at it. He needed to find his friends. He wasn't sure where Charlie and Vaughan had gone.

He turned his back to the building and was confronted by a hoard of zombies.

Nate froze. There were hundreds of them; twitching, drooling, and groaning in makeshift harmony. He took a moment to wonder, panicked and unbelieving, how so many were about to sneak up on him without him noticing.

Then he turned back towards the building and ran.

**/!\ Get away from hoard**

As he dashed forward he heard the hoard following him, their groans growing louder and more furious with every stride he took. He reached for his gun in the back of his pants, pulled it out, and shot at the zombies.

**(o) (o) (o) (o) (o)**

Streams of blood jetted from the heads of the creatures that he managed to hit. It was difficult for Nate to aim properly as he was running away. Didn't matter, the mass of monsters couldn't catch up to the speed that Nate was running. He could get to the building before-

Something grabbed Nate's left leg and pulled. He screamed as he was forced face first into the ground. The pain from the impact felt distant. Recovering from the fall as quickly as he could, Nate turned on his side to look at the thing that had grabbed him. It was Anya.

"You murderer." Anya snarled. "I was  _scared_. I thought he was bitten. I just wanted to protect everyone. You murdered me due to a misunderstanding!" Her skin was pale. Blood trailed down the corners of her mouth and pooled around her stomach. Her hand held a ferocious grip on his leg and he could feel how cold they were through his pants.

| I didn't want that to happen |

**| YOU were going to MURDER him |**

| Get off of me now |

| ... |

" _You_  were going to  _murder_  Vaughan, you stupid bitch!" Nate said. "Your death is your fault!" Anya screamed at him. The hoard of zombies was getting closer.

**(o)**

Nate shot Anya in the face. Her brains escaped out of the back of her head and her body fell to the side, positioning itself in the same way she had been when he had shot her five weeks ago. Nate stood up and ran. The distance between Nate and the mass of rotting monsters was shorter than it had been before.

**(o)(o)(o)(o)**

He shot at them again, only one bullet missing it's target this time. He was halfway to the building when something cold seized both of his legs and pulled him down. Nate was able to free himself from the assailants long enough to turn himself onto his back and look at who grabbed him before his legs were held still. It was Guatier and Hanna.

"How can you have no sympathy for us?" Guatier grieved, his pale hands tightening on Nate's leg. Blood seeped out of the wound on his shoulder and mixed with the blood leaking out of his and his wife's stomachs.

"How could murder us and feel nothing?" Hanna moaned. Her eyes were as wide as they had been when she died.

| I do feel something |

**| Charlie killed you two |**

| Don't touch me |

| ... |

"Charlie killed the both of you, not me!" Nate said. Their grip on his legs intensified. The smell of putrid flesh overpowered the flowers as the monsters drew near.

**(o)**

Nate shot Hanna in the head. The force of the bullet knocked her onto her back, laying the same way she did when she died. Her eyes were still wide.

**(o)**

Nate pointed the gun at Guatier and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

"Shit!" Nate cried. The footsteps of the undead mob grew louder.

**(o)**

Nate raised his free leg and kicked Guatier in the face. He felt the older man's nose break and flatten under the heel of his foot. The man didn't let go.

**(o)**

Nate drew his foot back and kicked him again. The bones in the man's cheek dented inwards. He still didn't let go.

**(o)**

Nate heard Guatier's teeth break. The zombies were getting closer.

**(o)**

With all of his strength, Nate kicked him in the forehead. Pieces of Guatier's skull broke off and impaled him in the brain. The man keeled over. Before he stood up and ran away from the advancing monsters, Nate heard Guatier make a wet and painful gasp.

Nate ran the last hundred meters as fast as he could; stumbling on tired legs, panting hard, and not bothering to look behind him. He couldn't stop himself by the time he reached the entrance to the building. His body slammed into the door. Nate didn't let himself focus on the pain from the impact, which was distant anyways, and pulled at the door. It wouldn't open. There were boards nailed to the door and writing spray painted in large letters. Nate read them.

_Please don't._

"No." Nate said. He meant to sound stubborn but his voice came out weak and scared. He quickly turned around and saw that the monsters a few feet away. He backed up and pressed against the door. He didn't want to go in there again, once had been horrible enough, but he knew if he did he would be able to escape the hoard.

Nate looked to his right. He saw the broken window and darted to it. He put his hands on the ledge, paused, heard the zombies getting closer, and jumped through the window.

When his feet touched the other side, he was not in the hall with the map at the end as he should have been. He was standing in front of the pharmacy. Startled, Nate looked behind him, expecting to see the window looking out to the field of flowers and the living dead. The window was gone, replaced by the corridor that led to this place.

Nate wanted to leave, but his feet wouldn't move. He stood in front of the pharmacy, waiting for the thing that he hoped he wouldn't see but knew he would. All of his senses, which had been dulled before, were now mercilessly heightened. The litter, the dusty counters, the stale air, the bloody floors, and the hazardous darkness; everything in the hospital seemed more real and more oppressive than anything Nate went through since the apocalypse started.

**(o) Look at pharmacy**

He pointed his flashlight at the pharmacy and waited, wondering feverishly at what point he had picked the flashlight up. The light trembled with the movement of his hand. The trembling grew stronger when the zombie walked out of the store. It had a bloody mess in its hands.

| Wake up |

| Let her go |

**| Stay away |**

| ... |

"Stay away from me." Nate whispered, his voice shaking. The zombie looked at him, stopped chewing and smiled. Bloody drool slimed down its face. Its broken teeth were filled with fleshy food debris. A chunk of meat fell out of its mouth. It looked down at the bloody mess, at what used to be a baby two days ago.

One of the arms of the infant had been torn off, only a few tendons hung from the shoulder. The other had a bite taken out of the upper arm. The lower torso of the baby had been completely devoured. The upper half of the baby was removed from the lower half. Her legs, which no longer received any signal from the brain, did not move. The rest of her did. The undead infant growled into the air, its arm reaching up to the ceiling as if trying to reach invisible prey. Its eyes rolled thickly in its head, focusing on everything at once.

The zombie holding the baby walked forward, stretching is arms toward Nate as if offering the infant as some macabre gift. The baby turned its head towards Nate and reached for him.

Nate screamed.

* * *

**THE WALKING DEAD: REAL MONSTERS**

* * *

The hum of the engine, the tires moving across the pavement, and Vaughan's occasional hisses of pain were the only noises that were made in the truck. Nate's grip on the steering wheel cut off the circulation in his hands and made them go white. There were trees to both sides of the truck but he paid them little attention to them. His eyes where fixed on the road ahead. He had no fixed destination in mind; his current goal was to drive far away from the nightmare he had.

Vaughan sat beside Nate, holding his head in his hands. The muscles in his face tensed and twitched as he waited for his migraine to go away. Vaughan groaned something in Japanese and Charlie muttered a reply back to him. Whatever she said caused Vaughan to frown more but he gave no retort. Slowly, the pain lessened. Vaughan sighed and leaned back into his seat. He took his glasses off his lap and placed them on his face.

"...Are you alright?" Vaughan asked after a moment. Nate spared him a quick glace before looking away. "You look like you haven't slept."

| Worry about yourself |

| I'm fine |

**| Sleeping is stupid |**

| ... |

"Sleeping is stupid. I fucking hate it." Nate grumbled. "I'm never sleeping again."

**(?) Charlie and Vaughan will remember that**

"...Okay." Vaughan said after a pause. "I'm just concerned. I don't think you've been sleeping well for the last two days."

"Do you know what I found out two days ago?" Charlie spoke up. "I found out that you had  _cancer."_  Nate ground his teeth together and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

"Charlie..." Vaughan sighed. "Please-"

"I still can't believe that you didn't tell  _me_  you were sick!" Charlie moved her head off of the window and faced Vaughan. Her face contorted into a nasty snarl as she talked to him. "I'm your girlfriend! You don't just hide shit like that from me!"

Vaughan ran his fingers through his hair. "I was going to tell-"

"You keep on saying that. 'I was going to tell you, I was going to tell you'." Charlie interrupted. "But more than a month passed and you still didn't say a Goddamn word to me!  _No one_  disrespects  _me_  like that."

**| Shut the fuck up |**

| You should have told her |

| Don't be so hard on him |

| ... |

"Will the both of you  _shut the fuck up!?"_  Nate screamed. Vaughan and Charlie flinched away from him. "You two are so annoying with your bullshit!" Vaughan's shoulders dropped and he looked away from him. He stared at the window closest to Charlie.

**(?) Charlie and Vaughan will remember that**

"Oh fuck you Nate!" Charlie snapped after the initial shock of him screaming. "You knew about Vaughan being sick too and you didn't say anything to me either!"

"But you know  _now_ , so shut the fuck up!" Nate said.

"Or what?" Charlie demanded. "You're going to  _fail_  at choking me again?" Vaughan looked away from the window.

"You choked Charlie?" Vaughan asked, his voice was high and hurt. Nate placed his forehead on the wheel and let out a heavy sigh.

"God, I need a drink." Nate said. There was a hint of desperation in his voice. Charlie huffed and rolled her eyes.

"...You shouldn't drive like that." Vaughan told him. Nate glared at him before sitting up straight. The younger man looked back outside the window and was quiet for a moment before speaking again.

"We just passed someone with alcohol." Vaughan said. Nate unconsciously slowed down the truck.

| And? |

**| We could trade with them |**

| Are you sure they're real? |

| ... |

"We could trade with them. Get some alcohol that way." Nate said. He didn't ask for any details and he didn't need them. He was so desperate for a drink that it didn't occur to him that Vaughan might be hallucinating. Nate needed something to take the edge off and allow him to forget about psychopathy and nightmares and dead children.

Charlie shook her head. "We shouldn't do that." She warned. "Food and supplies are more important than alcohol."

**| We're not giving everything away |**

| More important than alcohol? |

| That's true |

| ... |

"We're not going to give  _everything_  away." Nate said irritably as he stopped the truck. "Don't give your tubes tied up in a knot." Charlie growled indignantly. She was about to reply when Vaughan spoke up.

"We should get the alcohol." He said. Nate and Charlie looked at him surprised.

| Two against one Charlie |

| Then it's settled |

**| Seriously? |**

| ... |

"Seriously?" Nate asked, arching an eyebrow at him. "You're  _agreeing_  with me? I thought you'd be more 'practical' like Charlie and agree with her." Vaughan laughed at took off his glasses. He gave Nate a sneaky sideways glace as he wiped him.

"Fuck yeah, I agree." Vaughan said. "We haven't had something to drink in a long time and let's face it, after all the shit we've been through we deserve to get wasted. If the guy is dangerous, we'll just beat them up right?" Vaughan put back on his glasses and flashed Nate a smile. Something about the smile seemed off to Nate, but he didn't know why. Charlie was staring at Vaughan like she had never seen him before.

Vaughan clapped his hands. "Let's procure ourselves some alcohol!" He cheered. Vaughan took hold of his bow and bag of arrows, climbed over his girlfriend, opened the door and went out. The two of them watched him go.

| What are we waiting for? |

| He seems happy |

**| Does Vaughan have MPD? |**

| ... |

"...Does Vaughan have MPD?" Nate asked.

"It's called DID now, and no. He doesn't." She said.

"Then what the  _fuck?_  He wasn't acting like that a minute ago." Nate said.

"I don't think I've ever seen him act that way." Charlie said. Nate shook his head and got out of the truck. Vaughan's odd personality change could be dealt with later. There was a bottle or two waiting for him and that was far more important.

* * *

They walked on the manmade path through the woods. Bugs flew around them and whined in their ears. They did their best to wave them away. Vaughan walked in front of Nate and Charlie, tripping every so often on invisible obstacles. The two men held small boxes filled with supplies in their hands. Charlie refused to bring anything.

"What if these people are bandits?" Charlie grumbled.

| There's more than one now? |

| You never stop bitching do you? |

**| Then you'll need to be careful |**

| ... |

"Then you'll need to be careful. They might try to take advantage of you." Nate told her.

**(?) Charlie noticed your concern**

"I don't think I have to worry." Charlie said. "Bandits only prey on women and, apparently,  _I look like a boy!"_  She said this last part frowning at him. Nate smirked.

They made it to a clearing where a small camp laid. There were two tents, a table, and a fire with a pot cooking on top. There were seven people in the area; talking to each other, sitting by the fire, reading, and taking turns drinking out of bottles of alcohol. Nate's attention was fixated on the bottles that he didn't notice what these people were until they all began to stare at the three of them.

" _Fuck,_  they're bandits." Nate said.

"Who the hell are they?" One of them asked. The rest of the bandits looked at a man who Nate presumed was the leader.

"Never mind that! Get them and take their things!" The leader said. Three of the masked men advanced towards them. The others looked for their crossbows. Nate dropped his box and shot one of them in the chest. The bandit screamed, clutching his chest as he fell.

"Run!" Nate screamed. All three of them sprinted back into the woods.

"Motherfuckers!  _Get them!"_  The leader screamed. The thieves let out a battle cry as they chased after them. Trees flew past them as they ran back towards the main road. Vaughan fought to keep his balance as he ran. Nate panted hard as his legs kicked off the ground. The sounds of the mob grew nearer. For a horrible moment he thought he was back in his dream with the hoard of zombies and the field of flowers, but he hastily pushed this thought out of his mind.

"We won't make it to the truck! We have to confront them!" Charlie shouted as they ran.

"Damn it!" Nate said. They stopped, turned around, and hid behind three adjacent trees. Charlie was to the left of him and Vaughan was to the right. The bandits were getting closer, arrows zipping in their direction.

"When we attack them, we have to keep moving and keep cover!" Nate ordered. "Charlie, you don't have a gun so be careful!" Charlie nodded. Nate grabbed hold of the tree and aimed his gun.

"Go!" He yelled.

**(o)(o)(o)**

Nate shot at a bandit directly in front of him and hit him in the head. The other two shots missed his next target, a man to his right. He hid behind the tree and two arrows zoomed past where he had been standing. He ran to another tree, narrowly missing more arrows.

He looked to see what Charlie and Vaughan were doing. Charlie hid behind a tree and waited for a bandit to run near. When he got closer, Charlie stabbed him in the stomach. Vaughan shot two in the shoulder and was aiming to shoot another one. Nate looked away from them and raised his gun.

**(o)(o)(o)(o)**

Nate shot the two that had been hit by Vaughan's arrows.

"There's two more left!" Nate said. The leader of the bandits, seeing the rest of his men dead, grabbed hold of his last member and pulled him back. They both turned around and tried to go back their camp. Nate ran after them, pushing his body off of any trees that were in the way. His mind was burning with anger as he ran.

**(o)**

He shot the leader in the back as the bandit was a few feet away from the clearing. The leader struggled to his hands and knees. He tried to crawl back to the camp, swearing and panting heavily.

**(o)**

Nate walked up to the leader and slammed his foot on his back. The side of the leader's face was forced against the grass and dirt.

"Don't you fucking  _dare_  shoot me!" The leader screamed, spit flying out of his mouth. "Don't you fucking da-" Nate shot him in the head. Blood, brains, and skull fragments gushed out of the man's head. His body spasmed violently, legs and arms moving in an erratic death dance.

**(o)**

Nate stepped off the body and shot it. It kept moving.

"Fuck you." He snarled.

**(o)**

"Fuck you."

**(o)**

_"Fuck you!"_  Nate knew that the man was already dead. He knew that it was only moving due to the nerves firing around in the body. None of that knowledge helped him stop shooting.

"All I wanted was some Goddamn alcohol-"

**(o)**

"But you had to get your stupid lackeys to try and kill us-"

**(o)**

"And now your dead but you won't stop moving.  _Stop fucking moving!"_

**(o)(o)(o)**

Nate heard a scream in front of him and looked up. Vaughan was kneeling on top of someone. Nate looked back down at the hole filled body. The spasms had stopped. Nate stepped around the puddle of blood growing out of the man and walked towards Vaughan.

**(o) Look at Vaughan**

His friend had one leg bend on top of the bandit's chest and the other on the ground beside him. He held an arrow in his left hand and was swaying it back and forth in front of the bandit's eye. His other hand covered the bandit's mouth. Nate stood to the side of the two of them and watched.

"It wouldn't be hard to take your eye out." Vaughan said. "I could stab the arrow in, twist, and pull it out.  _Pop!"_  He giggled. The bandit's pleas were muffled against his hand. The thief shook his head, tears forming in the corners of his wide eyes. Just as it seemed that Vaughan preparing force the arrow down, the sadistic tint Nate had seen in his eyes went away. The smile fell from the younger man's face.

"...Oh my God." Vaughan said, horror growing in his voice. He pulled the arrow away from the man's eye. "Oh my God. I am so sorry, I-" He moved his leg off the bandit. The man took this opportunity to roll onto his stomach, push himself off the ground and dash off. Nate pointed his gun at the fleeing bandit and pulled the trigger. The gun made a clicking noise.

"Shit." Nate grunted. The bandit ran into the woods and out of sight.

"Nate." Charlie said as she entered the clearing. Nate looked at her. "The only reason why I'm not incredibly pissed off at you right now is because I believe finding this camp was worth dodging some arrows. Bandit's rob people all the time, I'm sure we're standing in front of some very useful stuff.  _But_ ," She was standing close to Nate now, glaring up at him. "If it turns out I'm wrong, I will fucking kill you for putting us in danger  _again."_

**| No you won't |**

| We're going to find lots of stuff |

| Don't threaten me |

| ... |

"You're not going to kill shit." Nate retorted, frowning back at her.

"That's what you think." Charlie said. "But unlike you,  _I_  know how to choke people. Now let's get the supplies and get out." She purposefully bumped into his shoulder as she passed him and made her way to the table. Vaughan cupped his face in his hands.

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

Vaughan was breathing heavily, the sounds of his shaky breath echoing off the palms of his hands. He heard Nate getting closer and slid his hands down his face.

"Hi." Vaughan said. His voice was low and shaking. The corners of his mouth rose up in an attempt to smile. After a moment they twitched back down again.

| That was different |

| Are you all right? |

**| Hi |**

| ... |

"Hi." Nate replied. Vaughan tried to smile again.

"About what just happened..." Vaughan said. He wrapped an arm around himself. "I- I don't... I mean..."

**| Just tell me |**

| I don't care why it happened |

| You don't have to tell me |

| ... |

"Just tell me." Nate said. Vaughan inhaled, held it, and let it out.

"I don't understand! One minute I was fine and then I started acting all strange and horrible!" Vaughan said. He took off his glasses and ran a hand through his hair.

"Did you black out?" Nate asked. Vaughan shook his head.

"No, I didn't. I was fully aware of what I was doing. I just didn't care." He told him. "He might have deserved it, but that's not the point! I don't know why I acted like that..."

| That doesn't seem so bad |  
 **| It's mood swings |**  
| Maybe it was a one-time thing |  
| ... |

"So you're having mood swings then. Isn't that another symptom of brain cancer?" Nate suggested.

"It is a symptom." Vaughan said after a pause. "But... I don't think you can call what happened a mood swing. Normal mood swings is going from being sad to happy. I was going to  _gorge_  that man's eye out! I even  _laughed_  about it!" Vaughan's glasses trembled in his hand. His bit his lip, watery eyes staring at Nate.

"Maybe you're right," Vaughan continued. His voice was thick with fear and wavered. "Maybe I acted like that because I'm sick. But what if it isn't the cancer? What if the apocalypse is making me  _lose my mind?"_

| Then you won't be alone |  
 **| It's the cancer |**  
| We can't stop the apocalypse |  
| ... |

"It's the cancer. Trust me, you're not going crazy." Nate told him.

**(?) Vaughan will remember that**

Vaughan looked away, eyes downcast. "Maybe." He said hesitantly.

"...Let's just look for supplies." Nate sighed. Vaughan nodded. He placed his glasses back on and made his way to one of the tents. Nate turned his face up to the sky and frowned at the clouds. Charlie was completely ruthless and cold, he was a possible psychopath, and now the cancer was fucking up Vaughan's head.

"I wonder how long it'll take before we kill each other." Nate murmured to himself. He looked back at the camp and walked forward.

**(o) Look at boxes**

There were boxes piled up around the camp. Most of them were closed, but the few that were opened had an assortment of supplies in them. Nate pick up a can from one of the boxes and shook it. It was full.

"All these boxes make it look like they were getting ready to leave." Vaughan said from the tent.

"They didn't look like they were packing up when we got here." Nate told him.

"Maybe they were taking a break?" Vaughan suggested. Nate shrugged.

**(o) Look at pot**

Nate heard boiling coming from the pot on top of the fire. He picked up a stick and used it to knock over the lid.

"Its just water." Nate said. "Probably trying to purify it or make soup. I haven't had hot soup in a long time..."

**(o) Look at table**

Nate walked to the table. More boxes were stacked on top of it. Nate was about to look through them when a loud noise startled him. He jumped back.

It was Charlie. She had activated a propane torch, looking at the blue flame escaping from the top. She turned it off and placed it back on the table.

**(o) Talk to Charlie**

"There are a lot of usefully things here." Nate said.

"So it seems." Charlie replied civilly. Nate walked away from the table and went to tent Vaughan was near.

**(o) Look at alcohol**

The bottles were in a box beside the tent. They were the most beautiful bottles Nate ever saw. He smiled.

"Fucking finally." He said.

**(o) Drink alcohol**

Nate pulled one of the bottles from out of the box.

"Parsons' whiskey." He read. "I've never had whiskey before."

"Tell me how it tastes okay?" Vaughan said. Nate opened the bottle and took a huge swig out of it. He enjoyed the taste for two seconds before, it seemed to Nate, the whiskey materialized a fist in his mouth and punched him in the throat. He pulled the bottle away from his mouth, coughing violently.

"Fuck!" Nate cried. He bent over and kept coughing, the strong flavor still assaulting his body. Vaughan looked mildly concerned.

"It has a kick to it then?" Vaughan asked. Nate did his best to stand up straight and nodded.

"It has a kick," Nate strained out. "Like deep-throating a foot is a kick. Holy  _crap."_

"So it's bad?" Vaughan asked.

"No, no, it's perfect." Nate said. "We're taking all of it." Vaughan raised an eyebrow at him and looked back into the tent. Nate put the lid on the bottle and put the whiskey back into the box. He looked at the other tent across from him and walked towards it.

**(o) Open tent**

Nate opened the tent up. Other than clothes, sleeping bags, and blankets, there seemed to be nothing of value. Then he saw the book.

**(o) Look at book**

It was an average, leatherback book. The spine was worn out and a few of the pages were torn.

"Should I take it?" He asked himself. "It doesn't look very useful."

**(o) Take book**

"Fuck it." He said. Nate took the book, put it in his jacket pocket, and left the tent.

* * *

They took the last of the supplies from the camp and placed them into the back of the truck. The afternoon sun beat down on them. Though Nate wished that he could find a swimming pool or some body of water he could cool himself down with, the heat was tolerable now that he had something to drink.

Taking another swig of whiskey, he briefly wondered if it was worth becoming an alcoholic if it meant he would be calm. It was hard for him to believe that he had become so anxious; he hadn't been stress-prone before the apocalypse and until recently, other than worries of his mental health, he had taken everything in stride. Now he was constantly on edge. Charlie and Vaughan had no idea how bad it was, even if they could see he was tense.

"How bad are your dreams?" Vaughan asked. Nate moved the bottle away and coughed. He was slowly getting used to the whiskey, but it was still difficult to drink.

"What?" Nate asked after catching his breath.

"Ever since..." Vaughan paused. "For two days now you've been sleeping outside instead of in the truck. And that's fine, but sometimes in the middle of the night I hear you making noises in your sleep. You sound like you're in pain. And last night I heard you scream." Nate frowned and looked away. Charlie turned away from the supplies and looked at Nate with mid interest.

| Don't worry about me |

| Stop listening to me when I sleep |

**| Its not nightmares I'm having |**

| ... |

"It's not  _nightmares_  I'm having you know." Nate lied. His tone was purposefully suggestive. Charlie walked back into the truck, rolling her eyes. Vaughan tilted his head at him, momentarily at a loss for what Nate was trying to say. It came to him after a few seconds. Vaughan's eyes grew larger and a light blush went over his face.

"Oh. Um, okay." Vaughan said lamely.

"Why do you always get flustered when we talk about things like this?" Nate asked. Whiskey knocked inside the bottle as he crossed his arms and leaned against the truck. "Is it a Japanese thing or what?"

"Charlie was born in Japan too, and she's more... vocal about this kind of thing." Vaughan said.

"Yeah, but she moved to America when she was a kid. You were fifteen or something when you came here." Nate said. "Now I know you had sex before because-"

"No!" Vaughan exclaimed. "No no no no no!" The intensity of his blush was increasing. Nate snickered. Charlie rolled down the window and stuck her head out.

"You know," Nate said before she could say anything. "People should be applauded for their ability to take his clothes off without him running out of the room, let alone sleep with him. Like you Charlie." Charlie gave him a puzzled look, wondering where that comment had come from, before speaking.

"...Who said I was able to get his clothes off?" Charlie asked. Vaughan screamed something in Japanese and covered his beet red face in his hands. Nate laughed and almost spilt all of the whiskey on to the ground.

"In all seriousness though," Charlie continued. "I make him do what I want so that's never a problem. Are we leaving now?" Nate chuckled and opened the door to the truck. Charlie moved out of the way and allowed him to sit down. Vaughan slowly made his way to the passenger's side. Nate thought he heard him say something about wishing he never learnt how to speak English.

| Wait |

**| Drive |**

Before Vaughan touched the handle of the car door, Nate pressed on the gas pedal. The truck drove away from Vaughan.

Charlie shrieked. "Nate!? What the fuck are you  _doing!?"_  He drove fifteen meters head of the younger man before stopping. He stuck his head out of the window and looked at him. Even from this distance, he could still see Vaughan's expression of dumb horror on his face. Nate looked past Vaughan and smiled.

"You better get to the truck before the zombies get you!" Nate called. Vaughan turned quickly around. The undead were walking towards him, rotting arms outstretched and grabbing for him. Vaughan ran, stumbling every so often.

| Wait |

**| Drive |**

Nate drove another fifteen feet before Vaughan was able to reach the door.

"Nate," Charlie said. "If you let my boyfriend get eaten I-"

"Relax." Nate said as he stopped the truck again. He took the book out of his jacket and tossed it into her lap. She made a startled noise when it landed on her. "I wouldn't do this if I thought he would get hurt. I'm just having  _fun."_  Charlie frowned at him. Nate stuck his head out the window.

"Vaughan.  _Vaughan_. Hurry up! I don't have all  _day!"_  Nate called. Vaughan ran after the truck again, panting hard.

| Wait |

**| Drive |**

Nate drove off again.

"You're an asshole." Charlie said. She opened the book and began reading through it.

"I know." Nate replied. He stopped the truck and poked his head out the window.

He called out again. "Hey Vau- Oh shit." Vaughan was bent over, gasping for air, with his hands on his knees. The zombies were getting closer to him. Nate reversed. A zombie was knocked over when Nate hit it with the back of his truck. He opened the door and pulled Vaughan in. The younger man let out a surprised squeak as he was placed over Charlie and Nate's legs. Nate closed the door and drove away.

* * *

The stone woman on top of the fountain was covered in dried shit. She held a Roman style wine jug, to match her ancient Roman style clothing, which she elegantly poured out unseen water into the fountain below despite her 'decorations'. The water itself was free from bird feces as far as Nate could see, but it looked no less dirty. Litter, leaves, and pieces of clothing added to the unappealing nature of the cloudy water, but Nate supposed he wasn't any cleaner. Not like he was going to take a bath in this anyways. He stepped into the pool and laid himself down. Resting his head on a part of the base that wasn't covered in filth, his hazy mind wondered where all the maintenance workers had gone.

"Why did we stop in a park?" Vaughan asked. Nate looked up at him. Whenever the younger man wasn't looking at the truck and around the park, he was frowning down at him.

**| I was hot |**

| We'll leave soon |

| [Mimic] Why did we stop? |

| ... |

"I was hot." Nate said. "I saw the fountain and I thought, 'Wow! There's a place to cool off and stuff'. So I stopped and I'm here in the water now." He paused, and then pointed to the statue above him. "She's hot. I'd do her if she weren't covered in shit. I'm not into that." Vaughan took off his glasses and huffed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Nate, how drunk are you right now?" Vaughan asked.

| Not as much as I want to be |

**| A little drunk |**

| Are you my mom? |

| ... |

"I'll be honest with you." Nate slurred. "I'm  _a little bit_  drunk. Not to the point where I won't remember things, but I'm drunk enough so that my brain's kind of fuzzy and my hangover will hurt a bit."

**(?) Vaughan is annoyed with you**

"I can't believe this." Vaughan sighed peevishly. He put back on his glasses and stretched a hand towards Nate.

"We can't stay here. I saw a man with a walkie-talkie leave from under the truck and run off. I think he might have been a bandit." Vaughan said. Nate looked past the truck, expecting to see a man running off into the distance. He didn't. "Get out of the fountain and give Charlie your keys." Vaughan waved the fingers in his hands, expecting Nate to hand them over right away.

**| You're hallucinating again |**

| I'm not giving you the keys |

| Let's stay here a while longer |

| ... |

"You're hallucinating again." Nate told him. Vaughan tried to protest but he continued. "I know we didn't drive that far away, but a bandit couldn't have held on to the bottom truck for so long. Besides, we killed them all." Vaughan let his arm fall to his side.

" _You two_  killed them all." Vaughan grumbled. " _I_  didn't kill anybody." He looked around the park again. Charlie stepped out of the truck. Her head was down, inspecting the pages of the book as she went near the two men.

"Vaughan." She said slowly. "I think we can find you a doctor."

"What?" Vaughan asked. He went beside Charlie was tried to grab the book. She moved it out of his reach. Nate got out of the fountain and walked to them.

"This journal mentions a doctor community." Charlie continued. Vaughan and Nate leaned closer. Charlie moved the book away from Nate. "You're going to get the pages wet!" She told him. Nate raised his hands, smiled apologetically, and leaned back.

"Here," She pointed to the paragraph in question and began reading. "Johnny's been fucking sick for about a week now. He hasn't been chomped, we checked him and made sure, but he looks God-awful. I think he has the black plague or some shit. We were thinking about offing him 'cause we can't have no burdens or nothing."

"Then this twink comes out of nowhere and asks us if we got any sick people. We were gonna blow his fucking head off. I mean who the shit just asks people if they got any sick with them? Well, the guy gets nervous and starts explaining himself. Apparently he's from some sort of doctor camp or something like that, and they want to get sick people and make them well so they have a better chance to survive the apocalypse."

"Now boss-man wouldn't let me ask any questions (asshat) but I have a lot of fucking questions. How did all the doctors find each other? How did they find all the things they needed, like beds or tents or fucking meds and medical equipment or food to feed everyone? How are they running the place? Why the fuck are they still doing their jobs when the world has ended!? If I were a doctor I would keep that shit to myself!"

"They are doing one thing properly though. The guy said that they're not taking  _anybody_  in. You have to have a pass to go. The guy gave the pass to boss-man and I have no idea where he put it, but now we have to pack all our stuff. Apparently we're all going to go to the doctor camp. I think he wants to take it over and make the doctors work for him, but what do I know? I'm just a stupid moron, right?"

Charlie closed the book. For the second time that day Vaughan's eyes were watery, but his body had relaxed completely and he was beaming.

"I can get help." Vaughan said, his voice soft and light. He let out the most relieved laugh Nate had ever heard. "I can get help."

"You need a ticket though." Charlie reminded him. "They're not going to help you if you go to them empty handed."

**| We'll get the ticket |**

| Charlie's right |

| What if it's a trap |

| ... |

"We-" Nate started, and then an arrow nearly killed him. The projectile brushed past his cheek, moving fast enough to hurt without breaking the skin, before hitting the statue and bouncing off. The three of them spun around. There were five bandits surrounding them, their bicycles discarded a few meters behind the truck. They had their weapons drawn on them.

"How did you miss!? Your aim fucking sucks!" One of the bandits screamed at other. He had a walkie-talkie attached to his pants.

"I didn't mean..." The bad aim bandit trailed off. He was the one who almost lost an eye to Vaughan. Charlie looked at both of her friends, silently asking them where their weapons were. Nate reached for his gun until he remembered that he left it in the truck. Vaughan's own bow and arrows were in the truck as well. Charlie was the only one who still armed. She looked at the bandits and tightened her grip on the handle.

"You." The new leader of the bandits pointed at Charlie. "Bring your knife over here." She glowered at them, and Nate was sure that Charlie wouldn't do it. She would throw herself at the thieves, swinging her knife wildly at them, and then be impaled by multiple arrows. She didn't. Instead, she hesitantly lowered her knife. Before it touched the ground, the leader spoke up.

"No. I said _bring_  it here." The leader ordered.

"...Fine." Charlie said. She walked forward. Nate and Vaughan had the same puzzled expression on their faces. Why wouldn't he want her to kick it over? The man ran the risk of getting attacked this way. Even with the other four pointing their weapons at her, carefully following her every move, she still could slit his throat before getting hurt.

She pointed the hilt at him. "Here you go, you-" The leader's fist connected hard with her lower jaw. Charlie's head whipped to the side. She lost consciousness before she hit the ground.

 _"Charlie!"_  Vaughan screamed. He took a step towards her and an arrow landed inches from his foot. The younger man looked hopelessly at his girlfriend and backed away. Nate glowered at the bandits. His legs juddered from locking them in place to keep himself from charging at them. The bandit who had chastised the other for missing Nate picked up Charlie. Vaughan shouted something in Japanese.

"Don't shout at me in your Jap language. You're in America now. Speaking English." The leader chastised. He turned to the other bandit and placed the knife across Charlie's body. "You know where to take her. Don't have too much fun."

"Of course boss-man!" The man holding Charlie said ecstatically. Nate forced himself not to run up to him and rip his head off. The bandit got on one of the bicycles. He sat the unconscious Charlie on his lap and rode away. Vaughan's look of complete horror and anguish followed them until they were out of sight.

"The both of you. Get on your knees.  _Now."_  The leader demanded. Vaughan's legs gave out and he fell onto his knees. He placed trembling hands on top of his head. Nate raised his hands and eased himself to the ground. The bandits closed the distance between the two of them until their world consisted only of a wall of masked men.

"Do you know what you assholes did?" The leader asked. He moved in front of Vaughan and bent over. "Well Jap? What do you think happened?" The younger man stared ahead of him, focusing on nothing. Nate thought he heard him say something about his mother.

The leader straightened himself out. "I asked you a question!" He growled. The bandit raised his leg and brought his foot down.

**(o)**

Nate shifted himself in front of Vaughan and took the blow to his shoulder. The pain spread across his chest. His leg brushed against the arrow on the ground as he fell back into the younger man. He grabbed onto his shoulder and hissed in pain. The haze of grief and apprehension lifted off Vaughan's eyes. He pressed a hand against Nate's back and unharmed shoulder and eased him slowly to a kneeling position. All the bandits laughed except for the one on Vaughan's right, the one who had missed Nate.

"Are you alright?" Vaughan said into his ear.

Nate's face twitched in pain but he managed to smile. "I'm kind of drunk remember?" Nate intoned. "This doesn't too tough."

"Oh how  _valiant."_  The leader said. His sarcasm made the others, except for the bad aim bandit, laugh again. "So tell me  _hero_ , do  _you_  know what happened?"

| What? |  
| We stole from you |  
 **| Fuck off you piece of shit |**  
| ... |

Nate looked up at him and snarled. "Fuck off you piece of sh-" He kept himself from screaming out as the leader slammed his foot into Nate's stomach. He keeled over, gasping and coughing and feeling like he was going to vomit. Vaughan grabbed hold of Nate's shoulders again. He whimpered something but Nate couldn't make out what it was.

"I'll tell you what happened." The leader chimed in. Nate and Vaughan looked up at him. "The commotion the two of you and your half-breed friend caused back at the camp attracted the undead. Did you notice how there were only five of us that came to get you? There used to be  _more._  But when we went back to the camp we were taken by surprise. Many of us fucking  _died."_  The other bandits grunted in agreement. Nate slowly eased himself up again. The leader hovered over the two men on the ground. A sadistic glow glinted his eyes.

"Here's what we're going to do." The leader continued, his voice soft with feign kindness. "We're going to beat the shit out of the both of you. Then we're going to kill you. After that, we'll take our stuff back and meet up with your friend." He paused and then added offhandedly. "I wasn't quite sure whether the half-breed really was a chick when I made her hand the knife to me. I'm still not so sure, but I guess Eli can tell us when we get back."

**| I'm going to kill you |**

| Leave us alone |

| You motherfucker |

| ... |

"I'm going to kill you." Nate glowered.

"Oh, really?" The leader said, tiling his head at him. The bandit bent over Nate, his face inches away from him. "And how are you going to do  _that?"_

**(o)**

Nate pulled the arrow from the ground, faced it forward, and stabbed it into the leader's eye. The leader shrieked. The other bandits froze. Vaughan made a pained whimpering sound. Nate grabbed the back of the man's head, and with a roar he forced the arrow into his brain. The leader screams turned into a high-pitched squeal and then ceased. Nate pushed him and the leader fell down like a bag of stones.

"Holy shit." The bad aim bandit said. This caused the others to snap out of their paralysis and draw their weapons at Nate.

**(o)**

Nate grabbed one of the bandits. He seized his arm and twisted it behind his back. The man screamed in pain. Nate wrapped an arm around the bandit's neck and forced the man to stand in front of him before the other one began shooting at him. The bad aim bandit didn't move. The other thief released the arrows, aiming for Nate's head. Nate dodged them, shifting his head from side to side. The man in his hold tried pull away.

Nate's hold on him tightened. He growled, pulling the bandit back. The fellow thief moved his bow erratically in an attempt to follow Nate's movements without hitting the other bandit.

**[E]**

Nate gave a sharp tug at the bandit's arm and the man jumped back up. The fellow thief released an arrow. It impaled the man's eye. He went limp in Nate's grasp. Nate dropped him.

"Fuck!" the other bandit cursed. He produced another arrow and drew it back. Before he could fire it, Vaughan stood up and shoved him over. The bandit stumbled back. He tried to keep balance and failed. He toppled over. The side of his head hit the truck before he fell to the ground. The bandit grunted and lost consciousness. Trails of blood oozed down his face.

"I will not throw up. I will not throw up." Vaughan repeated desperately. He wrapped an arm around his stomach and covered his mouth, looking at the two dead men with identical arrows sticking out of their heads. Nate scowled at the bad aim bandit and the man balked.

"H-hey man." The bad aim bandit stammered. He raised his hands in the air. "Hey I-" Nate darted towards the bandit and punched him in the face. The man shrieked as he flew to the ground. Before he had a chance to get up, Nate stomped on his stomach. He held his foot there as the man trembled in the grass.

 _"Where is Charlie!?"_  Nate thundered. Vaughan looked away from the bodies and stood beside Nate.

"I'll tell you! Just- just give me some supplies." The bad aim bandit said.

"What?" Nate asked indignantly. "Why the fuck would we do that?"

"I- I just need something to get me by." The bad aim bandit explained. "I only joined them for protection, I swear! Now that they're all dead... I just need something to support myself for a while. You can take everything else! I'll even let you take the ticket the boss has on him!" Vaughan went to the dead leader and searched through his pockets. He took out a crumpled up, medium sized piece of paper. He smoothed it out and read it. A brief smile lit up his face.

"See! That's okay!" The bandit said. "I'll tell you everything after you give me some stuff!" The man dug his shaky hands into the earth.

"Or we could  _make_  you tell us where she is." Nate's voice was dangerously low. The man beneath him shrunk under his vengeful gaze.

"Just give him some of the supplies." Vaughan said. Nate looked at Vaughan with an expression of pure disbelieve which turned into rage. When Vaughan stood beside him again, Nate clutched the younger man's collar and yanked him forward until their foreheads touched.

"Your girl is probably getting  _raped_  right now," Nate seethed. "And you want to  _reward_  one of his friends for it?"

"Of course not!" Vaughan said. He shook his head and Nate's hat moved. "I know... I know what probably happening to Charlie right now. But there is absolutely no reason why  _we_  should be like that too. We're better than that." He looked away from Nate and stared at the bandit. "Nate, look at him."

Nate did as he was told. A dark spot was growing on the bandit's pants, starting from his crotch and spreading outwards. The man didn't notice. He was digging dirt out of the ground, distracting himself from his fear of the two men in front of him.

"He's not going to go after us and he's not going to lie." Vaughan continued. He looked back at Nate. "We won't accomplish anything more by hurting him."

| How do you know that? |

**| What if I want to hurt him? |**

| You're morals will get us killed |

| ... |

Nate looked at Vaughan. "What if I want to hurt him?" He asked. Vaughan closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

**(?) Vaughan will remember that**

"Please don't." Vaughan begged.  _Please don't._  Nate winced slightly. His hands uncurled from the younger man's collar. Vaughan rubbed his throat and stepped away. Nate looked from the bandit, to the truck, and back to the bandit again. The man sat in the grass, pants soaked with urine and hands filled with dirt, waiting for Nate to do something.

Nate walked to the back of the truck. He heard both Vaughan and the bad aim bandit let out identical sighs of relief. He opened the tonneau cover. The back was filled with boxes.

**(o) Look at box**

There was an empty box on its side, waiting to be filled with the provisions the bandit needed to make it on his own for a while. Nate frowned.

**(o) Look at whiskey**

As he was looking for goods to fill the box, his eyes fell upon the bottles of whiskey and the propane torch.

"Why did she put those two so close together?" Nate murmured to himself. He paused when a thought entered his mind. "...I could set the bastard on fire. He'd talk then and he won't come after us. The fountain is right over there so I could put him out before he burned to death."

"Nate?" Vaughan asked.

"Coming." Nate said over his shoulder. He looked back and forth between the empty box and the propane torch.

**(o) Set bandit on fire**

He picked the torch up and pulled a bottle of whiskey out of the box. He held the torch under his arm as he opened the bottle. After throwing the lid away, he held the two items in both of his hands and walked back towards the bandit.

"...What am I supposed to do with that?" The bad aim bandit asked once he saw the torch and whiskey. Nate ignored him and poured the whiskey on the man's shoulder. Vaughan face tensed as Nate's intentions dawned on him.

"Don't-" Vaughan started. Nate pointed the propane torch at him and turned it on. Vaughan could feel the flame through his shirt.

"I'm going to burn the son of a bitch." Nate said. "You can watch if you want." Nate smiled at him. The crazed expression on his face made Vaughan recoil from the older man. Nate turned towards the bandit. Before the thief could even think of darting of, Nate slammed his foot into his stomach again.

"This is what's going to happen." Nate told the quivering man. "I'm going to take this torch and set you on fire. When you tell me where Charlie is, I'll take the fire out."

"No!" The man cried. "No!  _Please!"_  Tears ran down the man's eyes. The dark spot on his pants grew in size. The bandit grabbed onto Nate's leg, his grip tight and desperate as he pleaded to be left unharmed.

**(o)**

Nate yanked his leg away from the man's grip. The bandit tried to crawl away.

**(o)**

Nate snatched the bandit's arm and turned him forward. The man was blubbering, screaming for someone to help him.

**(o)**

Nate brought the propane torch down. The fire hit the bandit's shoulder. The man's upper torso burst into flames. The bandit wailed. He writhed on the ground, bawling in pain and fear. Vaughan ran up to the man. Nate grabbed hold of him before he could reach the bandit.

"You're going to kill him!" Vaughan cried. He struggled against Nate's grasp.

| No I won't |

**| Stop being a pussy |**

| Just hold on |

| ... |

"Stop being a pussy and shut up!" Nate shouted. Vaughan looked at his face and the crazed expression he saw again terrified him. The younger man stopped struggling. Nate let him go.

 _"I'll talk! Oh God, I'll talk!"_  The bandit wailed.  _"Fuck! Take the fire out! Take it out! I'll talk!"_

"Talk first, then the fire goes out." Nate told him. Vaughan quaked in place. He stared at the screaming, burning man and couldn't tear his eyes away. He placed a hand over his mouth and moaned.

 _"Ah fuck! Help me!"_  The man bawled. Nate looked at the smoldering man and felt nothing. For the first time since the apocalypse started, he didn't mind.

"Tell me where Charlie is." Nate said.

* * *

It only took them two minutes to get to the town houses. It would have taken less time, but Nate accidentally took a wrong turn while looking for the place. The houses were cheap. It was clear that they needed work before the world had come to ruin, and now that there was no one to maintain the adjoining homes the place looked days from collapsing all together.

Nate and Vaughan stepped out of the truck. Nate could hear faint moaning sounds coming from some of the houses. He walked quietly over to Vaughan's side and looked at him. Vaughan swayed where he stood. His eyes gazed distantly into nothing. Sections of his clothes were seared.

After he had let Vaughan drag the blazing bandit into the fountain, he made him leave the man in the pool without tending to his wounds. The man's chest and face were ruined. The skin melted and sagged, boils formed like polka dots on his injured flesh. Vaughan nearly threw up. Nate left him alone as he drove to the town houses. The older man knew he had traumatized him.

Nate tapped his hand against the truck and the younger man reluctantly turned his attention to him.

"When we walk to house thirteen, we're not going to make a sound." Nate whispered. "We're going to wreck the motherfucker who took Charlie, and then we're going to get her out of there. Let's go." Vaughan nodded. His hands fidgeted anxiously with the bow in his hand.

**/!\ Sneak up to house thirteen**

They crouched down and crept forward. They passed house after house with the upmost care and caution. Vaughan lost balance a few times but managed to keep himself from falling. Nate counted the numbers of the doors they passed.

_One, three, is Charlie dead?_

_Five, seven, did she get raped?_

_Nine, eleven, I'll kill the son of a bitch!_

_Thirteen._

Vaughan and Nate move stealthily up the stairs and to the door.

**(o) Look at door**

The door was ajar.

"It's open." Nate said. A sweaty and musky smell wafted through the gap.

**(o) Open door**

Nate looked at Vaughan. The younger man nodded back, his eyes large but determined. Nate pressed his hand against the door and pushed gently until there was enough room for them to squeeze through. The two men went in.

They took a few wary steps into the home when something hit the door behind them. The door slammed shut. They spun around, weapons raised. There was no one behind them.

"Oh my god!" Vaughan whispered hoarsely. Nate followed his gaze to the ground and flinched. It was a head. The neck had been severed unevenly. Pieces of shredded flesh and bone hung from the opening. The eyes bulged, the mouth was open in a silent scream, blood oozed from the stab wound on its forehead, and the face muscles were tensed in extreme pain.

"It's the man who took Charlie..." Vaughan strained.

"It took you two long enough." A voice said from their right. They jumped and turned towards the owner of the voice.

"Charlie!" Vaughan cried. Charlie's clothes were wrinkled and haphazardly worn on her body. Her kinky curly hair was tied in a loose bun, though a section of her hair was freed and frizzed outward. Blood dripped from her hands, her knife, and soaked into her clothes. She was smoking a cigarette.

Vaughan dropped the bow and ran to her. Charlie moved the cigarette away from her mouth before he embraced her. Vaughan kissed her lips, cheek, and neck with fervent relief. Nate let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and smiled.

"Are you alright?" Vaughan asked when he finally pulled his face away from her. "Did he hurt you? Did he make you do anything?" He placed his hands on her shoulders. Charlie put the cigarette to her lips and inhaled.

"He didn't make me do anything." Charlie said. "I did sleep with him though." She turned her head away from Vaughan and exhaled the smoke. The two men gave her matching looks of confusion. Nate walked up to her.

"I don't understand." Vaughan said slowly. He sounded puzzled and concerned. "I thought you said he didn't make you do anything."

"He didn't." Charlie repeated.

| I still don't understand |

| Why did you do that? |

**| Oh holy shit |**

| ... |

"Oh holy shit." Nate said, dumbfounded. "You slept with him on  _purpose?"_  She nodded. Vaughan's hands fell from her shoulder like dead weights. All the questions tried to come out of his mouth at once and caused him to stutter pathetically.

"I know." Charlie told her boyfriend. "Its quite surprising. Wouldn't it have been terrible of me if I had kept it from you? It's a good thing  _I told you right away."_  She walked past the stunned Vaughan and left the house. Nate looked at him. Vaughan curled his trembling hands into fists. His head and shoulder's sagged. It looked as if gravity had increased around the younger man, crushing him with its invisible force from the outside in. Nate followed Charlie out the door.

She was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Smoke rings flowed out of her mouth. She tilted a head at Nate as he descended down the stairs.

"I haven't had a cigarette in a  _long_  time." She told him. "I've forgotten how good they are post-coitus." Nate stopped in front of her.

**| You couldn't lie about it? |**

| I've never smoked after sex |

| [Slap Charlie] |

| ... |

"You couldn't have lied about what happened?" Nate said, irritated. "You were just compelled to tell him the fucking truth?"

"If I were going to lie about it I wouldn't have slept with the bandit in the first place." Charlie told him. She exhaled the rest of the smoke. "I'm going to tell you what happened."

| Fine |

| I don't want to know |

| Eww |

**| ... |**

Nate crossed his arms and said nothing. Charlie went on. "When I woke up, Eli was carrying me towards the house. He saw that my eyes were open and he got scared, but he acted like he was tough shit and start threatening me. 'If you scream I'll kill you' he says. 'You don't have to worry about anything' I tell him. 'I'm more than willing to do what you want.' Now he may have looked stupid, but he wasn't. Not by  _much_  anyways. He didn't believe that I'd go with him without a fight."

"So I started kissing him. Not only did that surprise him, but it also made him stop threatening me. He carried me into the house and he put me down. At that moment I could have killed him. The butcher's knife was close by; I could have grabbed it and stabbed the asshole. But Vaughan needed to be taught a lesson. So I slept with him."

"After we were done, he was very relaxed and I was... rather impressed, actually. He told me that the others were going to want to have me too. I told him I didn't mind and he laughed. I asked him for a cigarette, he gave me one, I lit it, and then I decapitated him. It was somewhat difficult to cut completely through, he did struggle quite a bit, but in the end his head came off clean enough I suppose."

"What do you think? Are you impressed?" She took another drag from the cigarette, held the smoke in, and let it out.

| Yes |

**| Somewhat |**

| No |

| ... |

"Somewhat." Nate admitted.

"Why somewhat?" Charlie asked.

"That you were able to decapitate the guy's head is awesome." Nate said. "That you slept with him just to get back at Vaughan is  _not fucking awesome!"_  Charlie rolled her eyes. "Okay, yeah, Vaughan lied to you. I know that sucks. And I would be fine with you doing something  _minor_  to get back at him. But what you did was not fucking minor!"

"It's not like  _you_  never cheated before." Charlie said. "Besides, Vaughan will get over it."

Nate grunted. "You cut a man's head off. That would be more incredible than it is now if you weren't a fucking slut." Charlie opened her mouth to speak when the bandit's head flew past the both of them.

"Score!" Vaughan cheered. He put his leg down and hopped down the stairs. Charlie and Nate stared at him as he skipped towards them.

"Well Charlie!" Vaughan said. He leered at her and she moved away from him. "I can see why you fucked him. His was a face to die for!" Vaughan laughed again and walked towards the truck.

"What the fuck is wrong with him?" Charlie asked.

**| It's mood swings |**

| What's wrong with YOU? |

| Let's just get out of here |

| ... |

"It's mood swings." Nate told her. "You know, from the  _tumor_  he has in his head." He walked away from her before she could reply.

* * *

Nate flinched when he woke up. He could still hear the baby scream in his head. He shivered in the back of the truck. It was still nighttime, the stars were bright and mocked him with their peaceful appearance. He thought he heard an owl screech, which was odd because he swore he parked the truck in a parking lot. He grabbed onto the side of the trunk and pulled himself up.

A light hit his face and he recoiled. He reached for his gun.

"I thought you said sleeping was stupid." Vaughan said. He moved the flashlight away from Nate's face. He kept talking before Nate could reply. "You set a man on fire, even after I told you we didn't have to. You set him on fire and I can still smell him  _burning."_  Vaughan's eyes glinted like pitchforks.

| What can I do about that? |

**| I'm not as bad as Charlie |**

| Go back to sleep |

| ... |

"Yes, I lit a man on fire." Nate said. "But at least I'm not as bad as Charlie."

Vaughan scoffed at him. "You said you wanted to hurt him!"

"...I did," Nate agreed. "But that doesn't mean it wasn't necessary." Vaughan opened his mouth and Nate covered it with his hand. "Shut up and listen for a second. I  _had_  to hurt him. He wouldn't have told us the truth otherwise. I know you think he differently, but you're wrong. He hung out with those bastards willingly, he said so himself. He would have done shit like that on a regular with those fuckers, why would he stop if we gave him our stuff for free?" He moved his hand from Vaughan mouth.

"What Charlie did to you,  _that_  was much worse." Nate continued. "She could have killed the bandit right away, but she didn't because she wanted to get back at you for something you did because you were scared and you didn't want her to leave you. Not that Charlie sees it that way but whatever." The younger man looked away.

"I set that guy on fire for all of us, alright?" Nate's voice went soft. "How the hell does fucking someone help anyone but her?" Vaughan looked back at Nate. All the anger that had been radiating off him was gone.

**| Move over |**

| Do nothing |

"C'mon up." Nate said. "You probably don't want to go back in there now that I've said all that." He shifted himself to the side. Vaughan looked into the back of the truck.

"Is there enough room?" Vaughan asked, pointing his flashlight at the boxes.

"Sure there is." Nate told him. "I kick around in my sleep so I move the stuff on the ground so I don't break anything." Vaughan looked at the boxes on the ground. He hesitated before climbing up into the back of the truck. He stumbled as he tried to sit. Nate grabbed hold of his arm and eased him down. After a moment of silence, Vaughan spoke.

"I fear for my mental health." The younger man said. "I'm not sure if I agree with you in thinking that the cancer is ruining my mind. But whether that's the case or not, I still need help."

| We all need help |

**| You need a doctor and a therapist? |**

| You're going to get tougher |

| ... |

"You need a doctor and a therapist then?" Nate asked.

Vaughan sighed. "A therapist... the thing about therapists nowadays is that they're either dead or in need of therapy."

Nate nodded. "At least we found you doctors." He said.

"Yeah," Vaughan replied. He brought his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them. "At least I'll have them. That's more important, I guess."

Silence fell over the two men again. Nate rested his head against the back window of the truck and sighed. Tomorrow would be less stressful. Tomorrow hopefully marked the start of normality in their lives again. That didn't make what happened today easier to deal with. It didn't make the nightmares bearable or his mental health less disturbing. Nate closed his eyes.

"I'm tired."


	4. Safe Resting Place

_This game series adapts to the choices you make._

_The story is tailored by how you play._

TELLTALE GAMES

presents

 

in association with

SKYBOUND ENTERTAINMENT

 

The car Nate was following was made two years ago, yet it was worn far beyond its time. Exhaust like grandpa farts came out of the back, it trembled as if afraid of the zombies that might be following it, and even with the windows up Nate could hear the engine fighting to stay alive.

He would have drove past the car in need of being put down and made his way to the camp himself, but Nate was tailing the car in the first place because he, unlike the driver of the other car, didn’t know how to get there. Despite his irritation at being behind the raggedy car, he was grateful that it was moving fast. However, this gratefulness was mixed with tinge of concern that the speed of the car would make it explode and the debris would hit his truck.

“Ah nah tah wah bawkaw desk.” Nate said. A laugh escaped Vaughan before he was able to cover his mouth. Charlie snuffled a laugh and shook her head.

“What?” Nate asked. “Didn’t I say it?” Nate was trying his best to get the pronunciation right despite his impartiality with Japanese. He had been driving for over three hours, most of which was spent in restrained and awkward silence. To lighten the mood, Nate decided to feign interest in learning a new language. His friends’ ability to smile after hours of projected but unspoken bitterness towards each other made it worth twisting his tongue around foreign words.

“No, but that’s alright. Let’s try that again.” Vaughan said. He cleared his throat. “Anata wa baka desu.”

“Ah nah tah wah bawkaw desk.” Nate repeated.

 “Well, it’s close enough I guess.” Vaughan said with a small laugh.

“What does it mean?” Nate asked.

“It means, ‘you are an idiot.’” Vaughan told him. They were in rural territory; farms with rotting wood and pealing paint, overgrown vineyards infested with snakes, and the occasional ghost town passed by the truck. Nate thought it was a good place to have a camp. There was space to move around, the population of zombies would less than in the cities, and no unwanted guests would be able to find them. As they passed by another abandoned farm, Nate wondered indifferently how many animals had died of starvation, being eaten by wild animals or zombies.

“I though you were going to teach me swear words.” Nate wined. The car in front turned, shaking so hard he was sure it would explode. It didn’t. Nate followed at a safe distance.

“Nate, anybody can swear in another language.” Charlie told him. “But knowing how to offend people in complete sentences makes you look smart _and_ a complete asshole.” Vaughan frowned at her and Charlie caught his gaze. They glared at each other for a few seconds before Vaughan looked away. An uncomfortable silence once again encroached itself into the truck. Nate was about to ask Vaughan to teach him more phrases when Charlie spoke.

“Something doesn’t feel right about this.” Charlie said. Vaughan turned his head towards her, face tense and eyes squinting.

**| Why? |**

| Again Charlie? |  
| Feels normal to me |  
| ... |

Nate puffed out air and rolled his eyes. “Why doesn’t it feel right Charlie?”  He made himself say.

Charlie frowned at his disinterest. “When we arrived at the place the ticket hold us to go, it wasn’t the camp.” She explained. “The man we’re following told us it was the rendezvous point, but that doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t they let people go directly to the camp?” Vaughan took of his glasses. He put so much force into cleaning them off with his shirt that Nate though they were going to break.

“They do it for the same reason they have the tickets.” Vaughan’s voice fought to stay controlled.

“Exactly, _they have tickets.”_ Charlie insisted. “People wouldn’t know where to go unless they had a ticket to tell them. There’s no reason why they would need to have a rendezvous point unless they’re filtering people out. That doesn’t sound like something that would be done if they wanted to help the sick survive the apocalypse.” Vaughan’s face twitched. He griped his knees tightly, fingers flexing as he did so.

| You have a point |  
 **| You’re thinking too much |**  
| Does it matter? |  
| ... |

“You’re thinking too much Charles, it’s not as complicated as you’re making it out in your head.” Nate said, pointing to his head.

**(?) Charlie and Vaughan will remember that**

Charlie sighed heavily and frowned at Nate. “I find your inability to question the safety of places disturbing.” Charlie said.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” Nate responded playfully. Charlie raised a finger into the air, motioning for him to stop talking and let her speak. She opened her mouth but was cut off when Vaughan started shouting.

“You’re just trying to find reasons not to like this place!” Vaughan accused. He whipped his head to her direction. “It’s like you _want_ me to die!” Nate subconsciously inched away from Vaughan, startled by his outburst. Charlie’s face went through a range of emotions; from going wide-eyed, to her jaw moving behind closed lips in an attempt to form words, to her muscles going taut underneath her skin.

“Why the fuck would I want you to die?” Charlie asked.

“I don’t know!” Vaughan said. “Maybe I _disrespected_ you by _breathing too hard!”_

“I don’t want you to _die_ Vaughan.” Charlie’s voice was assertive and low, but lacked the acid that it usually had when she was angry. Vaughan looked down, hands still gripped tightly to his knees as he frowned at the glasses in his lap.

| You both need to break up |  
| You two should fight to the death |  
 **| This can be resolved with a threesome |**  
| ... |

 “You know all this conflict and shit can be resolved with a threesome.” Nate said. He wanted to defuse the situation and that was the first thing that came to his mind. At the very least he hoped it would distract Vaughan. It did. Vaughan went still, Nate’s random suggestion processing in his mind, before his face turned red. He stuttered incoherently, placing his hands on his face and doubling over.

“You dumbass.” Charlie said. She gave Nate a knowing look, her eyes telling him that she knew he was trying to divert the problem.

He shrugged. “What? It’s not a bad idea.” Nate insisted.

“How would that work now?” Charlie said. She crossed her arms. “You can hardly stand our ‘annoying bullshit’ problems.”

“It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for peace.” Nate smirked. He placed a hand over his heart and tipped his head in her direction. Charlie rolled her eyes. Her mouth twitched upwards.  
 _“Why?”_ Vaughan voice was high-pitched and drawn out. The car in front of them slowed to a stop.

“Oh look, we’re here.” Nate said. There were four vehicles, including the car, lined up in an improvised parking lot. Nate parked beside a van and stepped out. Vaughan and Charlie followed. The camp was in a recreation park.  It sat in an open plain, the grass and weeds flattened down after many feet walked over it, giving the illusion of being cut when seen from far away. Trees surrounded the camp like a fence but spaced out far enough to walk past them and see what lay beyond the border, which were more plains and trees.

From what Nate could see there were a dozen tents; a large one was near the back of the plain and the rest were either in front of the largest one or to the right of playground. The playground was in the middle of the field. Two men were fighting in front of it.

“What’s going on?” The man Nate had been following said as he exited his car. He slammed the door and ran towards the conflict. Nate, Charlie, and Vaughan walked after him. There was a small crowd surrounding the fighting men at a safe distance; with the exception of four people the majority looked like doctors or workers at the camp.

“Dad, let me go!” A green haired black woman in her early twenties said. She tried to free her arm from her father’s grasp. “Someone needs to stop them!”

“This is _not_ our problem to deal with.” The father asserted. He pulled his daughter father from the fight.

“But dad!” The woman said. The dad ignored her.

“Your old dude’s right.” A man with light red eyes told the young woman. He gave her a lopsided smile and tilted his head towards the fighting men. “There’s no reason to add to the negative vibes going around, yah? Just _chillax._ Those two dudes will stop on their own.”

“Hey! _Hey!_ Stop it! You’re being _bad!”_ A little girl sitting on top of the slide yelled at the brawling men. Nate looked at her and stopped breathing. She looked like an older version of the baby. He distantly heard the man he had followed and another woman around his age yell at the two men as he stared at the little girl. Was she really there, he wondered, or had his mind taken a page from Vaughan’s brain and decided to play tricks on him?

“Nate.” Vaughan’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “We need to do something.”

“No we don’t.” Charlie said. “Why should that responsibility be on us? We don’t run the place.” Nate looked at the both of them.

Charlie shook her head. ‘Don’t do it’.

Vaughan frowned at the clashing men and turned back to Nate. ‘We need to do something’.

| I’m not doing shit |  
| Let’s stop them |  
 **| I’ll do it myself |**  
| ... |

“I’m going to stop them on my own.” Nate told Vaughan. “We don’t need you taking anymore hits to the head.”

**(?) You decided to stop the fight yourself**

Vaughan looked concerned. “Are you sure?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Nate said. He walked towards the scuffle.

“You really don’t have to do this.” Charlie called after him.

Nate waved a hand. “Too late, I’m already gone.” He said. The crowd watched him as he came closer to the two men. The other woman and the man with the broken car moved out of his way as he passed. When he was a meter away from the fight he stopped.

**(o) Look at men**

One was a doctor and other person appeared to be a worker at the camp. The worker sat on top of the doctor and tried to punch him. The doctor grabbed both of his fists. They struggled like this, the worker forcing his arms down and the doctor pushing against them, until the doctor threw the worker off him. Nate backed up as the worker rolled in his direction. He stood up in time to see the doctor charging at him. The worker knocked him over before the doctor could grab him and they continued fighting on the ground.

“I could either pull them apart, or I could try to knock them both out.” Nate murmured to himself.

“Don’t do it dude!” The red-eyed man called. Nate glanced at him before looking back to the struggling men.

**(o) Fight men**

Nate cracked his fingers and stepped forward. His body cast a shadow over the two men. The doctor, now on top of the worker, looked up.

**(o)**

Before the doctor could say anything, Nate drew his foot back and kicked him hard in the stomach. The doctor flew off the other man and landed heavily onto his back. He turned to his side, coughing and hugging his stomach. The worker rose, catching his breath before he made to kick the doctor himself.

**(o)**

Nate shoved him to the side. The worker almost lost balance. When he regained his footing he glared at Nate.

“Get out of here!” The worker said. He swung his arm.

**(o)**

Nate caught the arm before it hit him. The worker struggled.

**(o)**

Nate punched the worker in the face. His head shot back.

**(o)**

Nate hit him again. The man spat out blood.

**(o)**

Nate punched him a third time. The man’s head rolled to the side and his body went limp. Nate let his arm go and the man fell to the ground.

“What happened here?” A voice demanded. Nate and the others turned. It was a middle-aged Indian woman. She had her arm in a sling. The doctor eased his beaten body into a sitting position and the Indian woman looked at him. “What happened to you?”

“Those two-” The doctor coughed. “Those two did _this_ to me!” He pointed a finger at both Nate and the worker. The woman frowned at Nate.

| Don’t blame me |  
 **| It needed to be done |**  
| Shut up |  
| ... |

“It needed to be done.” Nate said with a shrug.

 _“It needed to be done!?”_ The doctor repeated irately.

“It was to make you two stop beating each other up.” Nate said. The woman’s distrustful stare moved from Nate to the doctor on the ground.

“Why were you fighting with him?” She asked the man. The crowd slowly dispersed now that the conflict was over. The little girl slid down the slide and ran off. Nate watched her go.

“Dr. Nāgá,” the doctor said. “That idiot was raving about how we’re heartless and how it isn’t worth it to help people if we’re going about it this way. I tried to calm him down but he wouldn’t listen and he attacked... me” The end of his sentence turned into a murmur as the intensity of Dr. Nāgá’s stare grew.

| Why would he say that? |

| So you didn’t start it? |

 **| I have to go |**  
| ... |

“This is all _very_ interesting but I have to go.” Nate said. As he turned to leave he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned in time to see the worker charging at the doctor.

**(o)**

Nate quickly extended his arm. He meant to hit the worker in the face. His fist connected with the man’s throat. The worker dropped to the ground. He twisted his body from side to side, his eyes bulging. Rapid and heavy wheezing noises came from the man. He clawed at his neck as if he was trying to open it up to allow the air to flow through. The worker looked like he was drowning. Dr. Nāgá ran towards the choking man. The doctor on the ground stared at Nate in disbelief.

“How hard did you hit him?” The doctor asked. Nate shook his head. He looked back at Charlie and Vaughan. Charlie nodded in approval. Vaughan looked horrified.

Nate barely felt anything at all.

 

**THE WALKING DEAD: REAL MONSTERS**

 

They followed the doctor to the patients’ section of the camp. Nate had assumed that the large tent in the back of the plain was used for keeping the sick. He was pleasantly surprised when they stopped in front of rows of smaller tents instead. From outside appearances alone, each tent could only hold one person but seemed large enough for that person to walk around without feeling claustrophobic. Nate supposed this was done to prevent the sick people from accidentally infecting each other, the luxury of privacy being an unplanned bonus.

“I must apologize once again for Donald’s behavior. I’ve never seen him become violent before.” Dr. Nāgá said. “He’s wasn’t always so confrontational about the way I run this camp, but his conscience decided it would plague him for helping us, even if what we do is necessary.”

“And what exactly _is_ necessary?” Charlie tone was distrustful. Vaughan frowned at her.

“The secrecy, the tickets, the rendezvous point...” Dr. Nāgá explained. “He felt that we should help more than just the ones we allowed to come here, and if we wanted the sick to survive we wouldn’t hide ourselves away. I agree with his sentiments, I truly do, but we do not have the resources to help more than few people at a time, and if we did make our selves publically known the camp would eventually be overpopulated with more people than we can aid.” She opened one of the tents with a finger and looked inside.

“This tent is unoccupied. You’ll be staying here.” Dr. Nāgá told Vaughan, moving her finger away from the tent.

Vaughan smiled. “Thank you.” He said. He kept looking at everything as if it had all been make-believe and, through some sort of magic, it had come true. Nate thought that in a way, that was exactly what it had been.

“I’m quite busy at the moment, but...” Dr. Nāgá paused. “What you saw earlier might have caused you to question the integrity of my camp. The least I can do is take the time to answer a few of your questions.” She crossed her arms behind her back and waited.

 **| Who are you? |**  
| How did you find these people? |  
| How long are we allowed to stay? |  
| Exit |

“Who are you?” Nate asked.

“Oh yes, I haven’t properly introduced myself.” Dr. Nāgá said. “My name is Reva Nāgá. I am the one in charge of this camp. I specialize in oncology so I will be seeing you... what is your name?” She looked at Vaughan.

“I’m Vaughan.” The younger man said. “And this is Nate and Charlie.” Nate gave the doctor a lazy salute. Charlie wouldn’t uncross her arms.

“I will occasionally check up on you Vaughan.” Dr. Nāgá told him.

 **| How did you find these people? |**  
| How long are we allowed to stay? |  
| Exit |

“How did you find all these people to help you out?” Nate asked. “I mean _shit_ , you couldn’t have just phoned these people and ask them to help you.” All three of them looked at the doctor expectantly. This was something they had all been wondering. Other than bandits or the occasional group of survivors, they rarely ever saw so many people working together this way. Furthermore they never saw people banding together to help others outside their own group.

“Most of these people are relatives or in-laws of mine.” Dr. Nāgá answered. Their eyes widened.

“Really? And all of you are doctors?” Vaughan asked. They had a dozen doctors and they knew that more were helping the patients out of view; the three of them had a hard time grasping that most of these people were related to her.

 “The majority of us are.” Dr. Nāgá said. “I am the oldest of five siblings. Our father pressured us into becoming doctors. After we did we all married people in our field, a few of us had children. When the crisis began my family lived in close proximity to one another, so it wasn’t hard for us to group together and keep each other safe. When I came up with the idea for making a camp to assist the ill, my family and I came together to create this.” She gestured all around her. “It took some time gathering the supplies but we managed, as you can see.”

 **| How long are we allowed to stay? |**  
| Exit |

“How long are we allowed to stay here?” Nate asked. If the doctors didn’t have enough resources to help many sick at once but wanted to help as much people as they could, Nate was sure they wouldn’t want the healthy to use anything that could be put towards the ill. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he and Charlie were told they couldn’t stay for long. Nate thought that was reasonable. He also thought it could be shoved up the ass of someone who gave a damn. He wasn’t going to leave Vaughan. Before the doctor could answer him, Charlie spoke up.

“You’re _not_ going to kick us out.” Charlie asserted, echoing Nate’s thoughts. “We’re _not_ leaving without him.” Vaughan frowned at her again but made no comment.

“Nor do I expect you.” Dr. Nāgá said. “There are many people here waiting for their sick loved ones to get well. I wouldn’t have any of you kicked before that happens.” Nate was surprised again.

“What does that mean for the people who haven’t been given a ticket yet?” Vaughan asked.

“It means that no more people are will be invited to the camp until someone leaves.” Dr. Nāgá told him.

“Oh.” Vaughan muttered. He looked and sounded genuinely disappointed for the people who no longer had a chance to be here. That sentiment was only shared with the doctor.

**| Exit |**

Nate shrugged. He had no more questions. The doctor looked to Charlie and Vaughan.

“No one else has anything they’d like to ask?” Dr. Nāgá said.

“Have you been in close contact with a zombie?” Charlie blurted out. Vaughan hissed something in Japanese but she ignored it. Nate had an idea why Charlie questioned the doctor about that. A rotting smell clung to Dr. Nāgá. Nate hadn’t noticed it when he first met her because she hadn’t been standing near enough to him. Now that they were speaking at a close distance, it was impossible not to take notice of it. 

“Not recently.” The doctor said after a pause. She pulled at the string on her sling. “Why?”

“Never mind.” Charlie replied, waving the doctor’s question away.

“Very well.” Dr. Nāgá said. “I have other matters to attend to. Vaughan, stay in this room. A doctor will be with you shortly. Nate, Charlie, you may stay with your friend of you’d like, though I suggest you introduce yourselves to the other members of the camp.”

“You mean talk to all the doctors and shit?” Nate asked.

“You can, although that wasn’t particularly what I had in mind.” Dr. Nāgá said. “I was referring to the other visitors. I believe there are four such ones in the camp. If you’ll excuse me.” The doctor nodded and left the three of them alone. Vaughan forced a grumbled goodbye under his breath and went inside the tent.

“I’m not interested in talking to the others.” Charlie told Nate. “I’m going to stay with Vaughan until a doctor comes.” She went into the tent before he could respond. The moment she stepped inside, Nate heard heated arguing in Japanese. As usual he couldn’t understand what was being said, but he thought he heard a ‘bawkaw’ somewhere amidst the tense and loud words thrown about in the tent.

“Bonjour!” The voice came from his side, much closer to the ground than he was. Nate looked at the owner of the voice and felt something in him shrivel up. It was the little girl. Her likeness to the baby was more evident now that he stood so close to her. _Too_ close to her. Nate stepped back, widening the girth between them. The little girl smiled at him. Dimples indented her cheeks. Nate tried to remember if the baby had dimples and couldn’t. That bothered him, it had only been three days since the baby died and Nate had dreamt of her every night afterward her death. Why couldn’t he remember?

The red haired, green-eyed girl in the dirty Alice in Wonderland dress waited for him to speak.

| Hello |  
| What do you want? |  
 **| Are you real? |**  
| ... |

“Are you real?” Nate’s voice came out in a rasp. He didn’t know if he were hallucinating. Being a possible psychopath was bad enough, but he realized at that moment that he was beginning to get used to the idea. He couldn’t get use to seeing things that weren’t there. He couldn’t get used to looking at a girl who looked so much like the one he couldn’t save, the one he failed take care of because he was a weak and stupid piece of shit.

“...No,” The little girl said. Nate cringed. “My name isn’t ‘Real’. Um... Can you help me with something?”

 **| What is it? |**  
| It depends |  
| No |  
| ... |

His first instinct was to say no and get as far away from her as possible. He fought against it. He was not going to run away from a Goddamn child.

“What is it?” Nate forced himself to ask.

“I want to make little...” She paused, trying to find the word in English. She wiggled her fingers as if she could grab the word she was looking for out of the air. “Flower... _flower bunches_ for everyone!”

“...Do you mean little ‘bouquets’?” Nate asked.

“It’s the same word in English?” The little girl said.

“Yeah.” Nate told her.

“Okay.” She beamed. “I think there are flowers I can get, but there away from the camp and I don’t want to go alone. Maman says that I’m not supposed to go anywhere by myself. And I might run into Morts!”

| You want me to protect you? |  
| Can’t you ask someone else? |

 **| Morts? |**  
| ... |

“Morts?” Nate asked. The girl opened her mouth, frowned, and closed it. She wiggled her hands into the air but no words fell out of the sky for her. She stopped moving her hands and pouted. Nate was about to tell her that she didn’t need to explain what she meant if she couldn’t when she began making growling noises.

She moved her arms and legs like she was climbing a ladder and stuck her tonged out. The little girl was pretending to be a zombie to get her point across. It would have been cute or annoying if it hadn’t reminded him of what he had seen in the pharmacy. Nate was disturbed.

“Can you come with me?” The little girl asked once she was finished. “I saw you beat up the guys being mean to each other- _hurting people isn’t nice by the way-_ but you can keep me safe with your beating up people skills.”

“Shit, I... I don’t know kid...” Nate said. He didn’t want to be around her, but he didn’t want to give into his urge to get away. It was pathetic to want to run from a child. ‘Especially if the child isn’t real’ a voice in his head said.

“Please? _Please?”_ The little girl begged.

 **| I’ll help you |**  
| It won’t take long? |  
| I’m busy |  
| ... |

“Don’t be a pussy, _she’s just a little girl.”_ Nate growled under his breath. The girl frowned at him, puzzled. Nate placed his hands on his knees and knelt down to her level. He made himself smile. “Alright kid. I’ll... help you out.”

**(?) You decided to help the little girl**

“Yay! _Merci!”_ The little girl chimed. She bounced over to Nate’s side and grabbed his hand. Her hand felt warm in his, felt _real_ in his, but as he walked towards the border of the camp he wondered if he was really walking alone.

\---

At one point all the flowers had been arranged in a way to illustrate a picture. Maybe it had been someone’s face or a dog or a logo, but the image was made unrecognizable by weeds and dehydrated flowers. Nate thought the little girl would be disappointed, but she was excited about finding so many flowers at once. She chimed something in French and sat in front the flowerbed.

Nate sat beside her. The ten-minute walk to get to the flowerbed allowed Nate to feel more confortable around the girl. He kept telling him she had to be real; the little girl was too vivid to be a delusion. However, he still had his doubts.

“You can help me make the bouquets if you want.” The little girl said.

**(o) Pick flowers**

Nate plucked the flowers out of the ground.

“We’re going to make...” She paused and counted in French. “Trois- _three_ bouquets for the others, one for maman, one for you and... wait, what’s your name?”

“The name’s Nate. And you’re rude for not asking me that earlier.” Nate joked.

“But you never asked me for _my_ name.” The little girl pouted.

“Hey, you greeted me. You’re supposed to ask first.” Nate said.

“Okay,” She said. “My name is Sissy. I’m five years old.”

| Okay Sissy |  
 **| That’s a terrible name |**  
| You’re young |  
| ... |

Nate laughed. “That’s a terrible name!”

“No it’s not! _You’re mean.”_ Sissy complained. She crossed her arms. “I’m not making any bouquets for you or anyone you came with if you keep being mean!” The little girl paused. “Who did you come with anyways?”

 **| Charlie and Vaughan |**  
| Two of my friends |  
| People |  
| ... |

“I came with Charlie and Vaughan.” Nate told the girl. He handed the girl a small bundle of flowers. “They’re both friends of mine.” She put his bouquet in her basket. Nate couldn’t recall her having a basket when he first met her.

“Are they your best friends?” She asked.

| No |  
 **| Yes |**  
| We are now |  
| ... |

“...Yeah.” Nate said after a moment. “I never thought they were before everything went to shit but... _yeah._ They’ve been my best friends for a long time.”

“I don’t know how my friends in France are doing.” Sissy told him. “They’re probably wondering why I’m not at daycare.” Nate arched an eyebrow at her. So she was under the assumption that France was unaffected by the apocalypse? Nate didn’t comment on it. He wondered if Vaughan felt the same way about Japan. The younger man did have his moments of naivety.

“Which one’s sick?” The little girl asked. It took Nate a moment to understand what she was referring to.

“Vaughan is. He has brain cancer.” He said. He tossed a bouquet into the basket.

“Woah. That’s really bad!” The little girl gasped. She put another bouquet into the basket. “My maman has AIDS.”

 _“Fuck.”_ Nate exclaimed. There was no way the mother was going to live for very long outside of the camp, it was amazing she managed to survive for so long.

“She takes a bunch of pills so she doesn’t feel bad.” Sissy said. “Maman was on her last few bottles just before we got to the camp. Where’s your family? Do you know?”

| I don’t know |  
 **| I don’t care |**  
| Is all your family in France? |  
| ... |

“I don’t fucking care where they are.” Nate grumbled. He hated what was left of his family. Sissy gawked at him for a moment before going back to her flowers.

“Maman doesn’t like her family either.” Sissy said. “She told me that grand-père likes to drink too much and grand-mère is really mean. So she doesn’t talk to them. She does like oncle Guatier and tante Hana though.” She placed two more bouquets in the basket. Nate’s hand froze over a flower.  

“What?” His voice was strained. He spoke too quietly for her to hear.

“They had a baby!” She continued. “I’ve seen pictures and the baby is _so cute!_ That’s why we came to Amérique, to see the baby. Oncle Guatier was supposed to pick us up at the airport, but the Morts came before he got there and we had to run away. Maman said that we were going to go to his house anyways, but then her pills started to run out. Then we came here. I hope I can see them soon.” She put another bouquet in the basket.

Nate didn’t move. She was related to the baby, that’s why she looked so much like her. Sissy wasn’t a guilt-induced hallucination. Or maybe she was. What if he made her related to the baby to give himself an explanation for why they looked alike? The little girl kept talking but Nate couldn’t hear her. He stared at the flowerbed.

“Oh hey! There’s a man over there.” Sissy said. She stood up. “Maybe he’d like some flowers too.” She placed the last small bouquet in the basket and stood up. Nate glanced at her as she walked on the dirt path around the flowerbed. He closed his eyes. When he got back to the camp, he was going to his truck and drinking whiskey until he couldn’t see straight. He would make a fool of himself but he didn’t give a fuck. He had to deal with nightmares when he slept but there was _no reason_ why he needed to deal with them during the day too. He-

A high pitched screamed filled the air. Nate’s eyes shot open.

“Nate! _Help!”_ Sissy cried. He heard groaning in between Sissy’s screams.

**/!\ Save Sissy**

Nate leaped off the ground and sprinted towards the cries as fast as he could. His mind raced with him.

_I’m not going to save her._

_I’ll be too slow._

_This isn’t happening._

_I’m asleep._

_I’ll see Anya and Guatier and Hana._

_Then I’ll see a hospital._

_The flowers._

_The zombie._

_The baby._

_Please don’t._

_Please don’t._

_PLEASE DON’T_

He found them. Sissy was wailing in French. She had fallen down and stayed on the ground. She was too afraid to move. The zombie advanced on her. It leaned down. It reached for her feet.

**(o)**

Nate roared. He charged at the monster. The thing looked up. He lunged at it, grabbing the zombie around the stomach. They both fell down. Sissy screamed. Nate landed on top of the monster. He sat up. It hissed at him.

**(o)**

Nate punched it in the face. It’s head whipped to the side, hitting the ground it laid on. Sissy stood up behind him.

**(o)**

Nate punched it again. It’s nose broke. Black blood poured out of it’s nostrils.

**(o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o) (o)**

He kept rotating hands, hitting the thing’s head repeatedly. All of his anger went into the punches. Nate hit harder and harder was he went on. His hands hurt but he didn’t care because this was the zombie that had killed the baby and he was going to murder it; never mind that it was already dead, never mind that the zombie had been female and this one was male, never mind that it had been his fault. Nate was going to beat it until it stopped moving.

After a few more punches, it did. Nate glared at it, arm in position to strike. It didn’t move. He let his arms fall to his side. His hands twitched in his lap. He laughed. He wasn’t sure what was so funny, but he knew there was a joke somewhere in this situation. Didn’t matter. It was hilarious. Everything was hilarious.

Sissy was crying again. Nate’s laughter died down. He still smiled.

| What’s wrong? |  
 **| You’re safe now |**  
| Impressed by my skills |  
| ... |

“Sissy, what’s wrong?” Nate asked. “You’re safe now. No need to be a little bitch about you almost dying. I _saved_ you.” His smile widened and his eyes were savage. Sissy had her hands balled into fists, her arms tightly pressed against her chest. Her lips trembled.

“V-vous me faites peur.” Sissy whimpered.

| I’m sorry Sissy |  
 **| I scare me too |**  
| You need to grow up |  
| ... |

“I know.” Nate told her. “I scare me too.” His smile dropped and his eyes lost their intensity. Sissy noticed the abrupt change but stayed wary of him.

**(o) Hug Sissy**

Nate knelt down in front of her. The little girl started to shake but didn’t move. He wrapped his arms around her; one hand resting on her shoulder, the other on top of her head. Sissy flinched.

“I’m sorry.” He said into her ear. “I’m sorry, okay? I fucked up.” The little girl’s body shook again. She grabbed onto Nate’s jacket and bawled into his chest. He stroked her hair until she calmed down.

**(?) You comforted Sissy**

When she stopped crying, Nate pulled away from her.

“We should go back to the camp before anyone notices that we’re gone.” Nate told her.

Sissy nodded. “Okay.” She said. Nate squeezed her shoulders briefly and stood up. Sissy took hold of his hand.

“Let’s get your basket and go.” Nate said. Sissy nodded again. They walked forward.

\---

No one rushed up to them when they returned to the camp. No one asked where they had gone, why they didn’t tell anyone they were going, or why a grown man had run off with a child for almost half an hour. No one had noticed that they left, it seemed.

Nate looked around. Some of the visitors were in various parts of the camp. The green-haired woman walked into one of the guest tents, and another woman was talking to the red-eyed man. He couldn’t see the green-haired woman’s father from where he was.

“We should give them the bouquets now.” Sissy said.

 _“We?”_ Nate asked.

“Oui.” Sissy chimed.

 **| Fine |**  
| Do it yourself |  
| I still don’t know if you’re real |  
| ... |

“...Fine.” Nate sighed. Dealing with the little girl for a while longer wasn’t going to hurt him. He walked towards the tent the green-haired woman went into.

**(o) Look at tent**

These tents were the same as the patients’. 

“Now I can see how big they are on the inside.” He said to himself.

“They’re really big!” Sissy exclaimed.

Nate rolled his eyes. “You’re tiny, of course you think it’s huge.” He told her.

She frowned. “I’m not tiny!” She pouted.

“Of course you’re not, baguette.” Nate said.

**(o) Open tent**

Nate and Sissy walked through. The green-haired woman sat on a folding bed. The younger woman looked even more youthful closer up. Nate thought she might have turned twenty recently. She looked up from her comic book and stared curiously at Nate and Sissy.

**(o) Give flowers**

Sissy walked up to the woman and began speaking French. The woman responded in kind. Though Nate could only understand a few words and small phrases, he did notice that their accents were different. Sissy’s accent was more pleasant to his ears. She handed the woman one of the small bundles of flowers. The woman accepted them with joy. She took a clip out of her hair and pined it back in place with the flowers attached. Sissy was very pleased by this and clapped her hands.

Nate should have been relieved. Someone else other than him could see and talk to the little girl, but he still had his doubts. What if he was making himself see other people talking to Sissy? What if-

Nate shook his head. No, he had enough of that bullshit. He now had clear evidence that she was real, there was no reason to believe he was hallucinating anymore. His mind still nagged him.

**(o) Talk to green-haired woman**

“Hello green-haired lady.” Nate said, stepping forward.

“Hello hat man.” She greeted. The woman smiled, looking him up and down.

“My name’s Nate.” He told her.

“And I’m Roxane.” She returned. She paused, giving him a lopsided smile. “Why did you beat those two guys up earlier today?” Her tone was playfully curious and lacked any judgment.

| Do you think I shouldn’t have? |  
| I was bored |  
 **| Someone had to |**  
| ... |

Nate shrugged. “Someone needed to stop them from fighting, and your old man wouldn’t let you so I thought I could step in and do it myself.” Nate said causally.

“Oh how _awesome_ of you.” Roxane giggled.

“I do what I can to keep the peace.” He said. Nate eyes fell to her chest for a moment before looking back at her.

“I’m sure you do.” Roxane said. She placed a hand on his arm. Nate’s smile grew. He hadn’t expected to get lucky when he came to the camp, but it seemed likely now.

 _“You two are so cute!”_ Sissy beamed. They both looked at her. Nate frowned. Damn it, he forgot she was there. Roxane removed her hand and cleared her throat.

 **| Are you from France? |**  
| About your hair... |  
| Who are you staying for? |  
| Exit |

“Did you come here from France too?” Nate asked.

Roxane shook her head. “Quebec.” She told him. “I’m from Canada.”

| How’s Quebec like? |  
| You’re accent sounds different |  
 **| Eh? |**  
| ... |

 _“Eh?”_ He teased. The black woman’s expression went from playful to annoyed in seconds.

“I _knew_ you were going to say ‘eh’!” Roxane complained. She waved a finger at him. “Everybody does that! Not all Canadians say ‘eh’!”

Nate raised his arms into the air. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” He said. “So why are you in America?” The young woman put her finger down.

“Vacation.” She told him. “My family was driving to Florida when everything went to hell. We stopped at a mall when the freaks came and started eating people. As everyone started panicking and trying to get out, I lost sight of my mom.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “She got caught in one of the crowds and went a different direction than us. Dad thought she was behind him the entire time, and it was so loud in the mall that he couldn’t hear me tell him that mom was gone. He didn’t know until we got out. We still don’t know where she is.” Roxane bit her lip. She looked off to the side of the tent. Before Nate could think of comforting her, Roxane’s downcast demeanor lifted. She smiled at him and Nate returned it.

“I’m sure you’ve been out of the country right?” She asked, changing the subject. “After all, models do have to work abroad sometimes.”

Nate laughed. _“Wow_ , that was smooth.” He was going to get laid, no question about it.

“I know. I try to be awesome like that.” She grinned.

“No, I’ve never been outside the country.” Nate told her. “The closest thing I have to experiencing any foreign is Vaughan.”

“Vaughan?” Roxane asked.

“A friend of mine. He’s the sick one I’m with.” Nate said.

“Okay. So what do you mean by foreign?” She said.

**| Tell her long version |**

| Tell her short version |

Nate began. “My brother was a part of an exchange program when I was eighteen and he was fifteen. He chose to go to Japan and switch places with some Japanese kid for half the year. Vaughan was that kid. Though he didn’t go by his English name at the time. He went by... Renkiyu or something like that.”

“Anyways, Renkiyu was a timid ass kid who couldn’t really speak English. I didn’t care much for him but I though that his inability to speak English was funny and would tell him a whole bunch of lies just to get a good laugh. Yeah, I’m an asshole.”

“After a month and a half though, I started to really like him. I reversed the damage that I did from telling him all that stupid shit and we became close friends. I don’t know _how_ we became friends, our personalities aren’t similar at all, but somehow it worked. It still works now, I think.”

“When the six months were up I was sad to see him go. I drove him to the airport and stayed with him for as long as I could. As Renkiyu was leaving, he told me in a light Japanese accent that he wanted to live in America but he needed an English name. Since he couldn’t think of any he wanted me to give him one. I wasn’t fucking prepared for that and he was being rushed to the plane, so just blurted out the first name that came to my head.”

“Four years later some random ass Asian guy knocks on my door and tells me that he hasn’t seen me in a long time. I look at him like he’s crazy because I have no idea who he is. He introduces himself as Vaughan and I still don’t know the fuck that is and I tell him so. Then he introduces himself again as Renkiyu and tells me that he took Vaughan as a name for himself after I called him that at the airport.”

“For a few seconds after he says this I _still_ didn’t remember who he was; I never kept contact with him after he left, I don’t do long distance _anything_ very well; but then it clicks and holy shit I was so happy to see him. I let him in my house, we talked, and we kept in contact ever since.”

“Wow.” Roxane said. For a moment Nate thought she was being sarcastic, but her eyes stared into his with great interest. “...So what is he sick with?”

“He has brain cancer.” He told her.

“Oh... that sucks.”  She said apologetically.

 **| Yeah |**  
| ‘That sucks?’ |  
| Are you sick? |  
| ... |

“Yeah.” He murmured. Vaughan was going to get help now; there was no need for him to dwell on it.

 **| About your hair... |**  
| Who are you staying for? |  
| Exit |

Nate gestured to her head. “When did you find the time to dye your hair in all of this?” He asked.

“I didn’t.” Roxane told him. “I dyed it before we left for Florida. When I turned my hair green dad was so mad. He wanted me to _shave off my hair._ Can you _believe that?_ So I said, ‘Fuck off dad! You can tell me what to do!’” She paused “...Okay that’s not true, I never said that. I respect my father. Sometimes. I did _think_ it though.”

“He shouldn’t be so mad, you’ll eventually have to cut it all the green off when it gets too long.” Nate said.

“That’s what _I_ told him.” She said. “He didn’t give a shit.”

| You look good with green hair |  
 **| Stepdad’s aren’t understanding |**  
| There’s nothing you can do |  
| ... |

“Stepdad’s aren’t always the most understanding.” He told her.

“What?” Roxane asked. She squinted her eyes. “No, he’s my actual dad.”

“Really?” Nate did his best to sound surprised. “I didn’t know. You’re just so much better looking than your dad I thought you weren’t related.” The confused look vanished from her eyes. She bit her lip and smirked at him.

 _“Awww!”_ Sissy cried. They both stared at her. She beamed at them. Nate frowned. He wasn’t going to get any if the little girl was still there. That wasn’t really a problem though; he could wait until she’d given the bouquets to the rest of the visitors and left him alone to come back to Roxane. The woman’s interest in him didn’t seem like it would wane soon. They both looked away from Sissy and smiled at each other.

 **| Who are you staying for? |**  
| Exit |

“Who are you staying here for?” Nate asked.

“My little sister.” Roxane said. “She’s been sick for two weeks now and we don’t know what’s wrong with her. She has stomach pains, she feels full even when she hasn’t eaten for a long time, she’s lost a lot of weight, and she throws up quite a bit. Sometimes there’s _blood_ in it. I hope the doctors can figure out what’s making her so sick, but I don’t know how they’re going to do that without any machines.”

“They don’t have any machines?” He asked. It made sense, Nate thought it would be impossible to acquire and maintain machines from the hospital. However, it would make the doctors’ jobs much harder and that worried him. How where they going to find out how big Vaughan’s tumor was now? How were they going to take it out?

“Not that I’ve seen.” Roxane sighed. She looked at the ground. “Dad’s really stressed out about sis being sick... But I’m sure she’ll bounce back! Things like this don’t hold her down for long.” She smiled, it faltered for a few seconds but she kept it strong.

**| Exit |**

“Is your old man going coming back soon?” Nate asked. ‘Do I have time to go down with you?’ was the unspoken question.

“He’s going to come in any moment now.” There was a touch of disappointment in Roxane’s voice. “You should probably leave before he gets back. He’ll find it sketchy that I’m talking to a stranger away from everybody else.” Nate took hold of her arms and pulled her closer. Roxane gave a throaty chuckle as the gap between them shortened. He heard Sissy giggle and ignored it.

“I’m still a stranger to you?” Nate’s voice was low. Roxane grinned, biting her lip. She gave her head a little shake.

“Of course not.” She chimed. Roxane curled her fingers into his shirt. “But-”

“What the fuck are you doing!?” A voice boomed from the entrance of the tent. Sissy gasped. Nate and Roxane turned towards the voice. A burly, tall black man stormed towards them. The two of them let go of each other at once.

| Nothing |  
 **| Chill out pop |**  
| I was just leaving |  
| ... |

“Chill out pop, I was just talking to your daughter.” Nate said. Roxane gulped.

“It looked like you were trying to do more than that you pedophile!” The dad hissed.

“...Pedophile?” Nate echoed. He was confused until he remembered that Sissy was still in the tent. He looked at her. The little girl back herself into the far end of the tent, in fear of the angry, yelling man. He assumed that the father saw him leave the campgrounds with Sissy and thought Nate had done something to her. The father might have left Roxane alone so he could chase after them. Nate frowned. He never touched Sissy, and he was about to tell him that when the father continued to scream.

“She’s only _sixteen_ , you sick fuck!” The father raged. This man needed glasses. Sissy wasn’t sixteen. Nate opened his mouth to tell the man that when he realized that it wasn’t Sissy the man was referring to. It was Roxane.

 _“What!?”_ Nate exclaimed, gawking at Roxane. The teenager grimaced. He involuntarily shook. He was flirting with her and she was only sixteen. He was planning to sleep with her and she was only sixteen. He could have accidentally gotten her pregnant if he did sleep with her, and _she was only sixteen._ Nate wanted to die.

“...I’m going to be seventeen soon.” Roxane told him. Nate groaned, dragging his hands down his face. The father grabbed Roxane’s arm and roughly pulled her away from Nate.

“Don’t give me that bullshit!” The father growled at him. “You knew how old she was!”

| No I didn’t |  
| I’m not a pedo |  
 **| Calm down |**  
| ... |

“Calm your ass down.” Nate snapped. He didn’t need to take this shit, he didn’t do anything wrong.

“Calm down!?” The father barked. “You’re going to take advantage of my daughter!”

“Dad, stop!” Roxane said. “This is my fault! I-”

“Like hell it is! I won’t let you cover for this pervert!” The father said.

“Non...” Sissy whined. She clapped her hands over her ears.

 **| This is your daughter’s fault |**  
| This is my fault |  
| Stop yelling at me |  
| ... |

 _“Your_ daughter didn’t tell _me_ that she was underage,” Nate said defensively. “Maybe _you_ should have taught her _not_ to hit on _adults.”_ He wanted to hit the man, it didn’t matter that the father had a good reason to be irate, he wanted to hurt him for accusing him of being a pedophile and screaming at him for no Goddamn reason. Roxane looked at her father, guilt spreading across her features. The father didn’t even glace at her. His eyes stared at Nate as if he were trying to liquefy his skull. The man raised his arm and shot it towards Nate’s face.

**(o)**

Nate ducked. The man’s arm swung across where Nate’s head had been. Roxane stepped away, yelling at her father in French.

**(o)**

Nate punched the man in the stomach. He grunted but was otherwise unaffected. The man grabbed Nate’s arm. Nate pulled but couldn’t get free. The man raised his other arm and brought it forward.

**(o)**

Nate ducked again. The man pulled his arm back and roared, aiming for Nate’s face once more.

**(o)**

Before the father could attempt to hit Nate again, Nate punched him in the nose. There was a loud crack. Blood flowed freely from the man’s nostrils. The father screamed and doubled over. He let go of Nate’s arm and cupped his nose.

**(o)**

Nate shoved the man. He fell onto his back. The father turned onto his side, still cupping his broken nose. His daughter ran to him, fussing over him in French. Sissy whimpered in the corner of the tent.

**(?) You fought with Roxane’s father**

 “C’mon Sissy, let’s go.” He said to the little girl. He waved a hand, beckoning her to come with him. He left the tent without making sure she followed him.

\---

He didn’t want to talk to any more people. The day had been crap so far and all he wanted to do was get drunk and pass out in his truck. Was that too much to ask? It was concerning that his ability to deal with bullshit was decreasing, but what was more concerning was the fact that he wasn’t shitfaced yet.

“I’m here.” Sissy said beside him. Nate looked down at her.

“What the fuck took you so long?” He asked.

“I was giving Roxane’s papa a bouquet!” She told him. Sissy lifted the basket of flowers and shook it. She hesitated before speaking again. “Um, are we going to give the rest of the flowers to the others?”

**| Yes |**

| No |

He wanted to say no. He wanted the little girl to leave him alone. Yet it still felt like he would be running away from her if he refused. Running away from what she reminded him of.

“Sure kid.” Nate sighed. Sissy grinned and held his hand.

**(?) You decided to continue helping Sissy**

It didn’t matter how irritating the day had been, he would _not_ run away from a little girl. The other woman and the red-eyed man were still talking to each other. Nate walked towards them.

**(o) Look at visitors**

The red-eyed man lounged on the grass. He was in his mid twenties. His oversized shirt of some band Nate didn’t know was covered in ash from his joint. He inhaled the joint, held it, and snorted the smoke out. He gave a lopsided smile to the woman standing in front of him. She didn’t return it.

The woman was the same one who had yelled at Donald and the other doctor to stop fighting earlier that day. Her body was tense and she kept frowning at the hash in the man’s hand. She tapped her foot on the ground, waiting for a response to whatever she had said before.

“So my drug dealer gave me this really awesome deal,” the red-eyed man slurred out. “And it was ‘two for one weed’. Great, yah? But it turned out that he was selling me the one joint for the price of two. It took me like a month to figure it out, and when I did I was not chillaxed at all, lady. I went to get my money back, and dead cannibal people were eating the dude. So I took as much weed I could and ran my ass off. So...” He inhaled the joint. “So the moral of the story is...” He blew the smoke out. “Don’t take two for one deals from your drug dealer.”

“That answered _none_ of the questions I asked!” The woman complained. “How high are you?” The man let out a long string of nasally, inebriated laughter.

“Maybe.” He answered.

“Oh my God.” She groaned. The woman rubbed her eyes. Nate grinned. This could turn out to be fun.

**(o) Talk to red-eyed man**

The pothead took notice of Nate and laughed.

“Hey, it’s the crazy dude!” The man cheered. _“Hi crazy dude!”_ He made punching motions in the air.

“I’m Nate.” He told the man.

“Nate as in Nathan, or Nate as in Nathaniel?” He asked. Before Nate could reply, the woman spoke up.

“Can you help me with him?” She asked. “I’m trying to get him to stop smoking that _crap_ but he won’t listen to me.” She gestured to the joint and the smoke around him.

“Lady. I am a sensitive soul, yah?” He told her. “I can’t deal with this apocalypse shit. I _need_ this ‘crap’ all the time so the bad energies of life don’t mess me up.” He wiggled the join in between his fingers.

“There are _children_ here. There are _sick people_ here. The smoke will ruin their lungs!” The woman argued.

“Weed is natural.” The pothead told her. “It’s not going hurt anybody. Like Bob Marley said, ‘yah mon’.” He drew in the joint.

“What?” The woman groaned. “What did that last part have to do with anyt- No. I give up. _You_ deal with him.” She directed the last part at Nate. The woman stormed off. The man snorted more smoke out of his nose.

**(o) Give flowers**

Sissy let go on Nate’s hand and walked up to the red-eyed man.

“Excusez-moi.” Sissy said. The man beamed at her.

“Hello little lady, how are you?” He greeted.

“I’m good.” She told him. “Would you like a bouquet?” He nodded. The little girl took one of the small bundles of flowers and gave it to him.

“Thank you.” He said. The man stared at the flowers intently. Nate was under the impression that the man had already forgotten how the flowers got into his hands. The man looked away from the flowers and reached under his shirt. Nate heard him unzip something. The man pulled out a pocketknife. He stabbed a hole into his shirt. The man placed the stems through the hole and put his knife away.

**(o) Talk to red-eyed man**

“What’s your name?” Nate asked.

“Jude.” He said. Jude tapped the grass beside him. “Sit dude, sit.”

| Stay standing |  
 **| Sit |**

Nate sat down. Sissy sat beside him. The smell of weed wafted intensely off of Jude. Nate was sure people could get high just by smelling him. Nate thought that the smell would bother Sissy but she didn’t react to it. Was she used to the smell, he wondered. Jude reached under his shirt again, unzipped something, and pulled out another joint.

“You want one?” He asked Nate. He waved the hash in front of him.

 **| That’s okay |**  
| Sure |  
| I don’t want that shit |  
| ... |

“That’s okay.” Nate told him. “I’d rather not.” Jude put the joint back under his shirt.

“It’s all good dude.” Jude reassured him. “You got to do what you got to do to climb mountains and shit right?”

“...What?” Nate asked.

“Yup.” Jude said. Nate chuckled and shook his head. It was going to be very interesting to maintain a conversation with him.

 **| How are you still alive? |**  
| About your weed... |  
| Who are you staying for? |  
| Exit |

“How the fuck are you still alive?” Nate asked. “Either you have someone taking care of your ass or you have an incredible amount of dumb luck.” Nate bet it was the former.

“I’m an Olympic runner.” Jude answered. Nate stared at him. “It’s _true._ I got silver medals for the 400-meter dash. Whenever I see cannibals I run like hell, take a smoke break, and keep on running. It kept me alive so far dude.”

| I don’t believe you |  
| You’re by yourself then? |  
 **| Run and smoke? |**  
| ... |

“You’re not supposed to run and smoke.” Nate told him.

“Yeah, I’d probably get bronze medals now.” Jude agreed. “When my coach found out that I was doing drugs he was _so pissed.”_ Jude laughed for thirty seconds straight. “I think he’s dead now.” Jude took another drag from his joint. A comfortable silence followed. Nate felt relaxed, though he wasn’t sure if it talking to Jude had altered his mood or if he was feeling the affects of breathing in the smoke. Either way, this conversation was the least stressful thing that had happened to him that day.

 **| Talk |**  
| Stay quiet |

“Vaughan’s coach was very anal about making sure none of the trainees took drugs.” Nate said.

“This Vaughan dude’s an Olympian too?” Jude asked. He exhaled smoke.

“I think he would have been if he’d agreed to be one earlier, but he did train for a few months.” Nate told him. “The coach had seen him in competitions and wanted him to train under him and join the Olympics, but Vaughan didn’t want to. But this man wouldn’t take no for an answer. Every time he saw him the coach would ask him to accept his offer.”

“He was a real pain in the ass for Vaughan, but it was because of him that Vaughan was able to meet his girlfriend, the coach’s daughter. He didn’t want the coach to find out that he was dating her because then the man really wouldn’t leave him alone, but after five years of trying to hide it the coach found out and made Vaughan train under him.” Jude nodded sagely, as if he had heard stories like that many times before. Nate thought Jude might have if he was telling the truth about being a professional runner.

“Why’d he quit?” Jude asked.

“He got brain cancer.” Nate told him. The pothead’s red eyes grew large. He reached under his shirt and pulled out another joint.

“Dude. Take my weed for your friend.” Jude insisted. “I heard cancer patients need it, yah?” He tossed in into Nate’s lap before he could refuse.

“...Thanks.” He remarked. It would be funny to see Vaughan’s reaction when he gave him weed.

 **| About your weed... |**  
| Who are you staying for? |  
| Exit |

“How much hash do you have?” Nate asked.

“I have a crap load dude! Keep it all in this fanny pack.” Jude told him. “Fanny packs are the bomb.” He lifted his baggy shirt. The pack was bulging. Nate laughed. He knew there was a knife in there, but was the rest really weed? It was a miracle the pothead was still alive.

 **| That woman wants it gone |**  
| Are you planning to trade it? |  
| I don’t think you have enough weed |  
| ... |

“That woman wants you to get rid of all your weed.” Nate reminded him. “She was staring at your joint like she was trying to get lasers to come out of her fucking eyes and destroy it.”

“Like Wonder Woman.” Jude commented.

“Yeah, sure.” Nate couldn’t bother to correct him. Jude stared thoughtfully at the joint in his hand. The expression on his face gradually changed from serene to unhappy. His shoulders slumped. The pothead lowered his hand and watched as the ash dropped into his lap.

“I don’t want to get rid of my stash dude.” Jude told him. “I need to do this to cope, yah? The shit I’ve seen... if you name it I’ve probably watched it happen twice at least. I saw my friends and family die. I saw people getting tortured and murdered and raped, not all of them adults either.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “I was on suicide watch a few times, and that was because of shit that happened _before_ the apocalypse. If I were _sober_ for all of this I’d...” Jude shook his head.

“But we got to chillax and let out all out positive out into the world, yah?” He said. Jude opened his eyes and waved his arms around. “It’ll fuse together and make an awesome, hot, pure energy lady that’ll kick the crap out of the cannibals.”

| Smoke away from the camp |

 **| Keep your hash |**  
| [Take weed] |  
| ... |

Nate could relate to needing something to take the edge off.  He could relate to being unable to cope on your own. Sissy leaned on his side and Nate fought the urge to flinch away from her.

“Keep your hash. Don’t let _anybody_ take it from you. If they try, kick their ass.” He told the pothead.

**(?) You didn’t take the weed from Jude**

“Nah, dude.” Jude slurred. “No need to hurt each other. We need to keep the peace. Butterflies and kangaroos and shit.” He put the joint to his lips.

**| What? |**

| Still kick their ass |  
| You’re too high |  
| ... |

 _“What?”_ Nate chuckled. Jude curled his hand into fist and extended it towards Nate. He thought the pothead was trying to punch him very slowly. The hand stopped halfway between them.

“Bro-fist.” Jude said.

**|Bro-fist|**

Nate bumped Jude’s fist with his own. Smoke jetted from his mouth as the pothead made an exploding noise when their hands touched. Nate laughed.

**(?) Jude thinks you’re a bro**

Sissy stood up and walked in front of Jude. She extended her own fist and Jude happily bumped it too, making the same exploding noise when their hands touched. Sissy giggled and sat back beside Nate.

 **| Who are you staying for? |**  
| Exit |

“Who are you staying here for?” Nate asked.

“A friend of mine. He’s got diabetes.” Jude answered.

“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Nate said. Diabetes was the tamest illness Nate heard of someone have at the camp so far.

“Nah dude.” Jude said. “My friend nearly went into a diabetic shock when we got into the camp. He looked _bad_. But the head doctor lady said that she specialized in endocrinology so she’d take care of him ever so often.”

“Dr. Nāgá said that?” Nate asked. The doctor specialized in both endocrinology and oncology? Was that possible? Nate supposed it must.

“Pretty cool, yah?” Jude said. “Indian people are great.”

**| Exit |**

Without warning, Jude flopped the rest of his body on the ground. Nate thought that the pothead had passed out, but his eyes were still open. Either he was too lazy or too high to sit anymore. Jude placed the joint in his mouth and sighed through his nose. Nate stood up. Sissy grabbed onto his pants and lifted herself off the ground.

“I’ll see you later.” Nate told the pothead.

“If you see a guy with lobster claws, don’t poke him in the tongue.” Jude warned him.

“...Okay.” Nate replied. He didn’t know what else to say to that. Sissy held his hand and they both walked away, the smell of hash getting fainter as they moved forward.

“Excuse me!” A woman called. Nate stopped and looked at her. It was the same one who was talking to Jude earlier. “Did you manage to take that crap away from him?” She extended her hand, already expecting Nate to hand her the bag of hash.

“I didn’t take anything.” He told her. The woman’s arm dropped to the inside.

“Why _not?”_ She demanded. She glared at him. Sissy hid behind Nate’s leg.

| He needs it |  
 **| He’s harmless |**  
| Because I wanted to |  
| ... |

“Lady, the man is harmless.” Nate told her. “When is the last time a pothead ever hurt anyone?”

“It’s not _him_ I’m worried about.” She told him. “It’s the weed itself!”

“Well, the weed’s harmless too.” Nate said. The woman threw her hands into the air, exasperated.

“I can’t wait until we get rid of you people.” The woman growled. She stormed away from Nate.

“Bitch.” Nate murmured. When the woman was out of view, Sissy moved away from Nate’s legs.

“Let’s go find your friends.” Sissy said. Nate nodded and they continued on.

\---

Charlie looked like a bodyguard, standing at attention in front of Vaughan’s tent. Nate could almost feel the waves of distrust emit off of her whenever a doctor or a worker would pass by. When she took notice of Nate, her body visibly relaxed. Then her eyes fell upon the little girl and she tensed again. She glared at Nate. ‘Are you fucking serious?’ her eyes chastised. She snapped her head away from their direction.

She had noticed the resemblance Sissy had to the baby. Nate wondered if Charlie thought he was going to adopt the little girl. Why would he do that? He didn’t have a child shaped hole in him that needed filling and Sissy already had a mom. Not that Charlie knew any of that. Sissy would be the last child Nate would take care of. He would never go near children ever again after her.

**(o) Give flowers**

“Excusez-moi.” Sissy said. Charlie looked down at her in barely veiled irritation. “Wow, you’re really pretty.” The little girl gawked at her as if she was a piece of art. Charlie’s look of frustration lifted slightly at the compliment.

“Thank you.” Charlie said civilly.

“Would you like a bouquet?” Sissy asked. Charlie looked into the basket as the little girl waved it back and forth.

“Those are too small to be called bouquets.” Charlie told her.

“Oh?” Sissy said. She stopped waving the basket and inspected her flowers.

“Whatever.” Charlie grumbled. She bent over and plucked one of the bouquets from out of the basket. She stared at it and for a moment Nate thought she was going to throw it away in front of the girl.  Instead, she pushed the stems through the hair tie. The flowers brushed against the bun on the back of her head.

“She’s very _cute_ Nate.” She told him. A death threat went unspoken in her tone.

“Are you two dating?” Sissy asked randomly. “You two should kiss!” They both looked down at her with equal expressions of surprise. Nate wanted to ask Sissy why she didn’t tell Roxane and him to kiss when she was had been fussing over how cute the two of them were, but then he remembered that Roxane was sixteen and decided not to ask.

 **| YOU kiss her |**  
| She’ll bite my face off |  
| [Kiss Charlie] |  
| ... |

 _“You_ kiss her.” Nate retorted. He couldn’t kiss Charlie. They didn’t hate each other, but it was too tense between them to do that. He might get punched in the face. Sissy grinned at Charlie. The woman frowned at the little girl.

“Don’t touch me.” Charlie tone was cold. The little girl stopped smiling.

“Okay.” Sissy said. She went back to Nate’s side and held his hand. Nate remembered Vaughan telling him that he wanted to have children, but looking at Charlie frown at Sissy, and the little girl’s refusing to meet her gaze, Nate knew that Charlie would never agree to have a child of their own.

**(o) Talk to Charlie**

“Are you feeling better about this place?” Nate asked.

“Fuck no.” Charlie answered quickly. Her voice was hushed. “There’s something wrong here but I don’t know what it is. There’s definitely something wrong with Dr. Nāgá.” She turned away from him and didn’t turn back until she was sure no one was around.

“What’s wrong with her?” He asked.

“She smells like a zombie.” She whispered. “I think she might have been bitten. Maybe that’s why her arm’s in a sling: to hide the bite.”

“She looked healthy to me.” Nate voice was equally low. Sissy frowned at them, either unable to hear what they were saying or unable to understand when their voices were so soft.

“She won’t look healthy for long.” Charlie insisted.

 **| What do you want to do? |**  
| I think you’re wrong |  
| We should keep her from Vaughan |  
| ... |

Nate sighed. “Let’s assume that you’re right about this camp and the head doctor. What do you want to do? We’re not going to find an opportunity like this again. Vaughan will die if we take him out of here.”

“I know.” Charlie said.

 _“So what do you want to do?”_ Nate repeated. Charlie looked away from him.

“...I’m thinking about it.” She responded, her voice at a normal volume again. “Let’s talk about something else.” Nate leaned away from her. He couldn’t remember when he had ever seen Charlie at a loss for what to do.

| Did you talk to the doctors? |  
| Are we going to get physicals? |

 **| How’s Vaughan doing? |**  
| ... |

“How’s Vaughan doing?” Nate asked. Charlie closed her eyes. Her shoulders tensed. She breathed in and held it for a few seconds before letting it out.

“...He had a seizure.” She told him. Nate gaped at her.

 _“What?”_ Nate asked. ”How!? Why!?” Charlie opened her eyes.

“It’s stress.” She said. “Plus the tumor is still growing. Those factors together aren’t going to make for very pleasant results Nate.” 

“Holy fuck.” Nate groaned. He cupped his mouth in his hands. They all had been lucky that they had found this camp. He didn’t know what would they have done if Vaughan had a seizure while they were out on the road. Still, this was alarming. Vaughan’s brain was deteriorating much faster in the last three days. Did they find the doctors too late? Nate ignored that thought and moved his hands away from his face.

“It was a mild seizure.” Charlie murmured. “He’ll be fine.” She looked at the little girl again. Sissy lightly swung Nate’s hand in tune with her own as she sung a French song quietly to herself. It was the song ‘alouette’, if Nate was hearing correctly.

“We need to talk about that.” Charlie told him.

“About what?” Nate asked.

“That.” Charlie said. She pointed a finger at the singing girl. Nate shook his head.

“I don’t _want_ to talk about ‘that’.” Nate said stubbornly. Charlie crossed her arms.

“You have to tell me something.” She demanded. Nate ground his teeth together.

| Hold it in |

**| Confide in Charlie |**

“I think I might be a psychopath.” He blurted out.

**(?) You decided to confide in Charlie**

“What?” Charlie said.

“You already know how I felt about...” He paused and looked down at Sissy. She continued to play with his hand, singing and paying no attention to their conversation. “What _happened_ to Anya. But I barley feel shit for any of the people I’ve hurt ever since the world went to hell. I hardly cared about what happened to the baby’s parents, and I didn’t care about the bandits. I know that I should feel bad, but I don’t. At the same time, I feel guilty about _not_ feeling guilty and I don’t know how the fuck that works.” He paused. “I don’t know if Vaughan told you, but he said that he’s afraid of losing his mind.”

“Because of his mood swings? That’s just the cancer.” She replied.

“I know,” Nate said. “But even if he was right, at least he has _something_ to lose. I’ve always been like this.”

“You don’t think you’ve changed?” Charlie asked.

 **| Not by much |**  
| No |  
| Have I changed? |  
| ... |

“Not by much.” Nate told her. “Yeah, I’ve been more irritable and it’s harder for me to let things go, but it’s not the apocalypse that made me not give a shit about strangers. I’ve always been that way. I’ve just never noticed it until now. I...” He trailed off.

“You what?” She asked.

| I don’t know how to change|  
 **| I’m terrified |**  
| I think I might hurt you two |  
| ... |

“I’m terrified of myself.” Nate admitted. “I really am.” He thought that must have been the most pathetic thing he had ever said. Charlie uncrossed her arms. She stared at him, _into him_ it seemed like to Nate. He stared back at her, waiting for Charlie to lecture him on manning up and acting like an idiot.

“You’re not a psychopath.” Charlie said. He wasn’t expecting to hear that.

| You’re not a psychiatrist |  
| I’m not? |  
 **| You think I’m fine |**  
| ... |

“You think there’s nothing wrong with me?” He asked incredulously.

“I never said that.” Charlie told him. “I’m saying that you’re not _that_ kind of crazy. Psychopaths don’t feel bad about what they’ve done.”

“But I-” He began to say.

“You said that you feel guilty about not feeling guilty. That counts.” She paused. “You feel guilty about being unable to save the baby, and you wanted to kill me in the bathroom but you couldn’t do it. On the other hand, you killed Anya and the bandits with little to no remorse, and you watched me kill the couple without feeling much either. What do the baby and I have in common that differs from the other people that you hurt or seen hurt?”

| You’re both female? |  
| The amount of time spent with me? |  
| I liked the both of you? |  
 **| ... |**

Nate slowly shook his head. He didn’t know.

“Your emotional attachment to us.” Charlie answered. “You made an emotional connection with the baby, so even though you didn’t know her for long, you’re bothered by her death. Comparatively, you never connected with the parents of baby so you never felt anything when they died. I like to call it ‘selective empathy’. _That_ is what’s wrong with you. Sound right?”

 **| I don’t know |**  
| That sounds wrong |  
| I think you’re right |  
| ... |

“I don’t know Charlie.” Nate sighed and rubbed his forehead. He thought she might be right, but in the end he didn’t care what was wrong with him, only that there was something _wrong._

“It sounds right to me.” Charlie said. “I’m going to give you one more piece of advice. Take what you’re feeling right now, and hold onto it.” It took Nate a moment to register what Charlie was trying to say, but when he did his hand dropped from his head. He stared at her like she had gone mad.

“Are you...” Nate couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Are you _advocating_ me being a _fucking psychopath?”_

“I’m _saying_ that you should use whatever’s wrong with you to your advantage.” She insisted. “So what if you’re crazy? So what if you don’t care about other people. _Fuck people._ All you need to care about is Vaughan and me. And if someone comes along who happens to be useful, care about them too. But everybody else can go to hell and there is no reason why you should force yourself to extend your empathy to them.” She said the last part of her sentence looking down at Sissy.

“...You want me to be a psychopath.” He deadpanned.

“I want you _not_ to break.” She told him. Nate’s eyes widened. “What? Don’t give me that look. I’m concerned about you for the same reason I’m concerned about Vaughan. You’re mine too. You can leave now if you want.” Nate stared at Charlie. She stared back at him. Sissy had stopped singing and was looking at the two of them. He wanted to say something but he didn’t know what. He only gave her a small nod and she returned it. He and the little girl walked into Vaughan’s tent.

\---

**(o) Look at Vaughan**

Vaughan lay in a folding bed in the middle of the tent.  His breathing was deep but unlabored. His eyes kept fluttering, closing for a few seconds, snapping open, and fluttering again. Nate walked closer to the bed.

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

“Hey man.” Nate said. Vaughan’s eyes focused on the top of the tent, as if he thought the voice had come there, before turning his head towards the older man. His forehead almost touched the glasses that lay beside him.

“Hi Nate.” Vaughan’s voice lacked strength. He smiled softly.

“Heard about your seizure.” Nate told him. He picked the glasses up and put them in his jacket pocket. He didn’t want Vaughan accidentally breaking them.

“Did Charlie tell you?” Vaughan asked.

“Yeah.” Nate said.

“It was mild. I’ll be okay.” Vaughan reassured him. “I feel tired though, and my head hurts.” He paused. His eyes fluttered. He frowned and kept them open. “I wanted to thank you.”

“For what?” Nate asked.

“You said that you’d find me a doctor and you found me _multiple_ doctors.” Vaughan said. “Sometimes I think I’m dreaming. I can’t believe you managed to do this.”

| Charlie read the book |  
 **| Told you I wouldn’t let you die |**  
| You still need to get better|  
| ... |

“I told you I would let you die of cancer.” Nate said, not even trying to be humble.

“Yes you did.” Vaughan agreed. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you.” He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he caught sight of the little girl and flinched. Sissy smiled at him.

“Bonjour! I’m Sissy.” The little girl greeted.

“...Hello Sissy.” Vaughan said slowly. “My name is Vaughan.” The sight of the girl made him more alert. Nate could tell by the way Vaughan looked at her that he noticed who she looked like too.

“Vaughan!” She repeated.

“Right.” He chuckled. “You are _very_ cute.”

“You’re cute too!” Sissy giggled behind her hand. Vaughan smiled at her before looking up at Nate. His eyes were filled with concern.

“Do you want to talk about this?” Vaughan asked. Nate groaned. He didn’t want to talk about that. He could deal with it on his own. He wasn’t alright, far from it, but he wasn’t so weak that he needed to unburden his feelings about the baby. Talking about his mental health wasn’t hard. Talking about what happened to the baby would be, but it didn’t matter because he wasn’t going to say a Goddamn word. He didn’t need Vaughan’s help; _he could deal with it on his own._

| Hold it in |

**| Confide in Vaughan |**

Nate placed a hand over his eyes and laughed. It was a low, stupid, _weak_ sounding laugh.

**(?) You decided to confide in Vaughan**

“Sissy? Could you leave us alone for a bit?” Vaughan asked.

“Okay! I’ll go visit maman!” Sissy cheered. She let go of Nate’s hand and skipped out of the tent. Nate went down on his knees until he was eyelevel with Vaughan.

“I think I’m crazy and it’s freaking me the fuck out.” Nate told him. “But I think that I could have dealt with it. I think over time I would have gotten used to the idea that there’s something wrong with me. But then the fucking baby...” He stopped.

Negative emotions clashed in his head, fusing and battling for dominance. He could feel his mind trying to go blank to stop these emotions, like it had when he first saw the baby die. He stopped himself from becoming emotionless, feeling pathetic for doing so. Nothing traumatic was happening to him in that moment, there was no reason for him to be reacting his way. He lowered his head.

“Nate?” Vaughan said. “Look at me.”

| Look at Vaughan |  
 **| Look away |**

Nate turned his head away. This ‘tell me your feelings’ crap was ridiculous and painful. He didn’t need to deal with this shit. He should just leave. Vaughan wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t need to hear his-

Vaughan’s took hold of Nate’s face and raised his head. Nate’s eyes widened. Vaughan’s hands were trembling. His face was tense as if he were lifting weights.

“Nate. I wouldn’t normally make you do this, but you can’t keep this in anymore.” Vaughan strained to put some force in his voice. “It isn’t healthy. You need to tell me what’s wrong, okay?” Nate nodded. Vaughan let go of his head, exhaled, and waited for Nate to continue.

“...I don’t normally hold on to the bad things that happen to me.” Nate began again. “Even when this bullshit apocalypse happened, I was able to take it in stride once the shock of it all went away. But I can’t shake this off.”

“You can’t shake off a person’s death.” Vaughan told him. “That’s not how it works”

| I know |  
 **| I should be able to |**  
| Why not? |  
| ... |

“I should be able to!” Nate growled. “I did it for everybody else that died! But no, this one fucking baby has to come along and _ruin me!_ I keep on having nightmares and in them I see how she looked when she died... I’m always standing in front of the pharmacy, and I always want to run away but I can’t. I just stand there and wait for that _thing_ to come out with her. No matter what else changes in the dream, that part always stays the same. I feel bad about it during the day, and that should be enough but it’s not. It has to follow in me in my sleep too.” He tried to shallow a dry lump in his throat. It wouldn’t go down.

“I didn’t know it was that bad.” The amount of pity in Vaughan’s voice made Nate want to throw something at him, but it was too busy being miserable to make the effort.

| You know now |  
| Don’t pity me |  
 **| I want it to stop |**  
| ... |

“I just want it to stop.” Nate grieved. “I get it. I’m a piece of shit. I fucked up real bad. I know. Just fucking _stop_ already.” He was asking his mind to allow him to move on and, he supposed, he was asking the baby to stop torturing him. Because if there was an after-life then she, if the baby was a she, was using it to get back at Nate for letting her die. He deserved it, he knew he did, but he had enough.

“...What you’re feeling right now,” Vaughan said after an extended period of silence. “I think you should hold on to some of it.” Nate glared at him.

| Why would I do that? |  
| Fuck no |  
 **| The pain? |**  
| ... |

“You want me to hold onto the pain?” He demanded. Vaughan shook his head.

“I want you to hold on to the humanity it gives you.” Vaughan explained. “I’ve seen the way you look sometimes. Your eyes get... gorked, and you act like you’ve completely lost your mind. However, that look in your eyes eventually leaves. You always go back to the way you were. I think that as long as you come back, you’ll never been too far gone. You can be fixed. But I also think that you need things like the baby’s death, things that make you _feel_ for other people, to keep you grounded. Because if you completely lose your ability to empathize with others, then you’ll be lost forever.”

 **| Can’t you and Charlie do that? |**  
| That’s a horrible idea |  
| I guess you’re right |  
| ... |

“Can’t you and Charlie be the ones that keep me here?” Nate sounded weak and he hated it. He wanted reach into his throat, tear his vocal cords out, and never speak again. But what Vaughan said disturbed him. He didn’t want to rely on the baby’s death to be normal.

“Of course we can.” Vaughan told him. “Of course.”

| That poor baby |  
 **| I hate everything |**  
| At least we’re safe now |  
| ... |

Nate folded his arm on top of the bed and put his head down.

“I hate everything.” His voice was muffled against his arms and the bed.

“I know.” Vaughan said. He placed his arm around Nate’s shoulders. “I think you’ll be okay. Because I’m weaker than you, but I’m okay. And if I can be, then I have no doubt that you will be too. If we try hard, everything will be okay in the end.”

Sissy came skipping and singing back inside the tent. Nate lifted his head and looked at her. Whatever she saw him Nate’s expression made her stop singing and stand still. Vaughan moved his arm away from him. Nate pushed himself off the bed and stood up. Sissy went back to his side and held his hand. Vaughan nodded to him and he returned it.

**(o) Give flowers**

“Would you like a bouquet?” Sissy asked Vaughan.

“I would love one.” Vaughan said. Sissy took one from out of her basket and handed it to him. He took the flowers and sniffed them. The little girl giggled.

“Thank you so much.” Vaughan beamed. He kept the flowers in his hands.

“You’re welcome.” Sissy said. Charlie poked half her body through the entrance of the tent.

“Oh, you’re still talking.” Charlie noted.

“You can come in.” Vaughan told her.

“No, I’ll wait until you’re finished talking to your _boyfriend.”_ Charlie said. She exited the tent. Sissy’s mouth flung open.

“You two are boyfriends?” She cried. Vaughan’s eyes grew in size.

“Um, n-” Vaughan tried to explain when the little girl cut him off.

“I have a cousin that has two papas.” She told them. “You two should kiss!”

“W-what?” Vaughan stammered. Nate laughed.

 **| What’s with you and people kissing? |**  
| He’ll explode if I do |  
| [Kiss Vaughan] |  
| ... |

“What’s with you and kissing people?” Nate chuckled.

“Kissing is cute!” Sissy told him.

“What about cooties?” He asked.

“Cooties don’t exist.” She said.

“Of course they don’t.” Nate chuckled again. She looked at the two of them expectantly. Nate shook his head at her and she pouted. Vaughan let out a sigh of relief.

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

“I never should have yelled at Charlie.” Vaughan murmured to himself. “I’m going to apologize to her later...” He yawned.

“I should go.” Nate said. Vaughan nodded. His eyes fluttered again.

“Okay. I’ll see you...” Vaughan fell asleep before he could finish. Nate looked down at Sissy and put a finger to his lips. The little girl smiled and copied him. They walked out of the tent.

\---

Shouting from his left caught his attention as he exited the tent. Nate turned. Donald, the man the Nate accidentally punched in the throat, stood three meters away with his back to him. Roxane, her father, Jude, Charlie, and a few doctors and workers were standing in front of Donald. He waved his arm at different members of the crowd, their bodies tensing up whenever he pointed at them. Charlie stood at the far right of the man, and when he moved his arm towards her, Nate was able the see the gun in his hand.

“Shit.” Nate hissed.

“What’s going on?” Sissy asked.

“Kid, fucking shut up.” Nate whispered harshly. Sissy put a hand over her mouth.

“You have to get out of here!” Donald said. He waved the hand holding the gun at the visitors.

“We can’t leave.” Roxane told him. “There are people we’re waiting on who are still sick.” Her father gripped her arm, holding her back from approaching the man.

“Yeah. Relax dude.” Despite the slurred speech, Jude sounded concerned.

“I’m not going to relax!” Donald yelled. He pointed the gun at Jude. “And neither should any of you! You’re all in danger!”

“What do you mean?” Charlie demanded. All of her attention left the gun and focused on Donald. He pointed the gun at her. She didn’t flinch, waiting intently for the man to explain himself.

“These people are all crazy!” Donald said. “They’re going to turn you all into zombies!” Shocked murmurs passed through the crowd of people. Sissy gasped. Her hold on Nate’s hand tightened.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Roxane’s father demanded. Before Donald could continue, the doctor he had fought earlier that day spoke up.

“Donald.” The doctor’s tone wavered but stayed forceful. “For the last time-”

“Shut up!” Donald screamed. He shoved the gun him the doctor’s direction and the man nearly jumped out of the way. Dr. Nāgá stepped between the two of them. Donald growled at her. The head doctor glanced discretely at Nate before turning her attention back to the worker. Nate knew he had to act while Dr. Nāgá was distracting Donald. He let go of Sissy’s hand and placed a finger to his lips. She copied him, her mouth trembling against her hand.

Nate stalked forward, his attention moving back and forth from Donald to the crowd of people. As the other’s noticed Nate’s approach, a silent message passed between them; Nate would take care of the man with the gun, they had to pretend they didn’t see him so Donald wouldn’t catch on.

“Donald. You are scaring these people.” Dr. Nāgá scolded him like she was talking to a misbehaving child and not a man with weapon in his hand. “There is no reason for you to act this way. We do our best to help people despite the circumstances. And your claims about turning the visitors into undead are-”

“Are what? Untrue?” Donald snarled. “I dare you to say it isn’t true. I fucking dare _you fucking bitch!”_ Nate was almost behind him. He could see that the man was sweating profusely and trembling. Nate wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he reached the man. He could take the gun, he could choke him and wait for him to pass out, or he could snap his neck. All of these options were risky.

“Your claims are false.” Dr. Nāgá told him. “We are doing no such thing.” Nate was right behind Donald. The doctor didn’t spare him a glance.  The man shook harder. Sweat leaked out of him like rivers and stank the air around him.

“You cunt.” Donald was seething with rage. “I’ll-”

**(o) Snap neck**

Nate grabbed Donald’s head; one hand squeezing the man’s chin and the other on his opposite temple. Donald jerked. He raised his gun towards Nate’s head. Nate wrenched his head to the side. A loud crunching sound was heard as Donald’s neck broke. His body went limp. Nate let go of his head and the man collapsed to the ground.

**(?) You broke Donald’s neck**

Then a shrill, agonized, wailing filled the air. It came from Donald. Horrified gasps spread throughout the crowd. Nate was stunned. Why hadn’t the man died? Wasn’t snapping the neck an instant death?

 _“Help me!”_ Donald shrieked. His eyes darted wildly in his head. _“I can’t move! Fuck! Help!”_ Nate looked at the crowd. Their eyes were glued on to the sight of the paralyzed, hysterical man. The doctors made no move to help Donald. Nate looked to Dr. Nāgá and she nodded to him, her eyes solemn.

 _“Somebody do something!”_ Donald begged.

**(o)**

Nate raised his leg and slammed it down to the side of Donald’s head. The man sobbed.

**(o)**

Nate stomped the head again. The sobbing weakened, hazing out of the man’s mouth.

**(o)**

Nate forced his foot down one last time. He felt Donald’s skull break. The man stopped crying.

“Oh God...” Roxane groaned. She turned to her father and whimpered into his chest. The father rubbed her back. He looked at Nate with a mixture of approval and animosity. Jude rubbed his neck to make sure it was still here. Charlie walked to the body. She bent and took the gun that laid a few inches from the dead man’s hand.

“Charlie, please give me the gun.” Dr. Nāgá said. Charlie pat Nate’s arm before turning towards the doctor. Dr. Nāgá extended her hand, waiting for Charlie to turn it over. When they were an arms length away from each other, Charlie pointed the gun to the doctor’s head. The other visitors back away. A few doctors tried to go the head doctor’s aid. Dr. Nāgá raised a hand to stop them. They reluctantly complied.

“You need to answer a few of my questions.” Charlie demanded. Nate walked up to the two women.

| You better listen to her doc |  
| You’re being stupid Charlie |  
 **| Don’t kill her |**  
| ... |

“Charlie, don’t kill her.” Nate said slowly. Charlie spared Nate an angry glance before looking back at the doctor.

“I won’t _have to_ if she _answers me.”_ She stressed.

“What would your questions be?” Dr. Nāgá asked calmly. Charlie pressed the barrel of the gun to the doctor’s forehead.

“What was that man talking about?” Charlie’s voice was tense and loud. “Did you lure us here to turn us into zombies? _Why do you smell like you’re dead?”_ The doctor closed her eyes and sighed. She rubbed her forehead, frowning slightly in thought. Charlie tapped the gun against the doctor’s forehead and she opened her eyes.

“...I would appreciate if you didn’t shoot me until after I finished explaining myself.” Dr. Nāgá appealed. The doctor looked down at her sling. She hooked a finger under the strap on her shoulder. She pulled it to the side until it almost came off her shoulder. She then wrapped her hand around where the cloth met the strap. Dr. Nāgá pulled on down on it and uncovered her arm.    

Nate jerked back. Her arm was rotten. It was discolored and dark. Flesh hung off in patches, exposing tendons, muscles, and bone. It reeked of death. The other visitors gasped in horror. The doctors were unsurprised. Charlie unconsciously lowered the gun as she gaped down at the arm.

 **| [Pull Charlie away] |**  
| Holy fucking hell |  
| Charlie shoot her |  
| ... |

Nate stomped forward. He wrapped his arms around Charlie’s stomach and yanked her backwards. Charlie shrieked. She struggled against Nate’s hold.

“Let go of me!” Charlie ordered. She elbowed him in the side. He didn’t let go.

“Don’t stand so close to her, you dumbass!” Nate chastised. The other visitors backed away from her.

“I’m not going to infect any of you.” Dr. Nāgá said.

“You’re damn right you won’t!” Nate growled. Charlie gave up struggling. She pointed the gun back at the doctor.

“How... how is that even possible?” Roxane said.

“You’ve been near my daughter with your arm like that!?” The father was furious. His grip on his daughter tightened. Roxane flinched in pain.

“Dude. _Holy shit.”_ Jude slurred.

“If everyone could quiet down for a moment, I’d like to explain myself.” Dr. Nāgá sighed. “In the first week of the outbreak, I was bitten by a zombie. Knowing that the infection would spread to the rest of my body if I did not react quickly, I tied off the arm before it could spread.” She rolled up her sleeve. A thick string was wrapped tightly around her arm. The contrast between healthy skin above the string and the undead arm below was dizzying.

“I would like to say that I meant to cut the arm off, but I did not.” She continued. “I suffer from apotemnophobia; I am afraid of getting an amputation. This is why my arm is still attached and not...” She shivered. She took a moment to collect herself before moving on. “None of you run the risk of being infected by me. The virus only exists in my arm and as long as it is in a sling you will be protected. Donald didn’t believe that, and I can only assume that his thought process made him come to the conclusion that we wanted all of you to be infected. After all, why would I associate myself with the visitors when my arm is in its current condition? However, I assure you that is not the case. I only wish to help others despite my handicap. Anymore more questions?”

| Won’t your arm fall off? |  
| Why didn’t you say tell us this earlier? |  
 **| You’re not allowed near Vaughan |**  
| ... |

“You’re not allowed near Vaughan, you hear me?” Nate’s tone was dangerously low. “I don’t care if the other doctors go near him, but _you_ and your _dead arm_ are going to stay the fuck away from him. _Do you understand?”_ Dr. Nāgá closed her eyes. The muscles in her face twitched. She took a moment to collect herself before opening her eyes again.

“Very well.” The doctor said. “I will respect your wishes. If anybody else would like for me to stay away from their wards, please let me know now.” No one else spoke up. Dr. Nāgá looked at Charlie. “Do you trust us now?” Nate felt Charlie sigh against him. She hesitantly lowered the gun and wrapped her arms on top of Nate’s. Dr. Nāgá looked to the rest of the visitors.

“I know this is a bit much to ask, but I would like the visitors to do us a favor.” The doctor told them. “We are low on the gasoline we need to run our generators. I would like all five of you to go into town and retrieve the gas from abandoned vehicles.”

“Alright, we’ll go.” Charlie spoke up. Nate looked around, expecting the other visitors to protest.

“...We can take my van.” Roxane’s father said. Roxane smiled.

“I thank you for your cooperation.” Dr. Nāgá said. “Please wait here.” She walked away. A couple doctors followed her. Nate felt cold metal tap against his arm. Charlie looked up at him, waiting for Nate to let go. He unwrapped his arms from her body and Charlie stepped away.

“It was her.” Charlie told him. “She’s the reason why this place felt so weird.”

| At least we know |  
 **| You trust this place now? |**  
| I don’t trust her |  
| ... |

“You really trust this place now?” Nate asked. She frowned to herself. Her mouth opened, closed, and opened again.

“...I still have my doubts,” Charlie admitted. “But they’re minor.” Two of the doctors placed a sheet over Donald’s body. The both watched as the doctors picked the dead man up and took him away. Nate could have sworn he heard a gasping noise coming from the sheet but decided it was the wind. He turned towards Vaughan’s tent and saw the little girl walking towards him. Her body was tense with apprehension.

“Is the fighting over?” Sissy asked timidly when she reached him. Her shoulders were raised, ready to flinch away from any danger. Charlie walked away from the two of them.

“Yeah, it’s over.” Nate said. “We’re going to be leaving soon, but we’ll be back.”

“I wish I could go...” The little girl whimpered. She lowered her head.

| You’ll be safer here |  
| Maybe you can |  
 **| It’ll be boring |**  
| ... |

“It’ll be boring baguette.” Nate told her. There was no reason to bring her along if people could take care of her. The last thing he needed was to see another little girl die.

“I guess so.” Sissy murmured. She looked up at him, her lips trembling, when suddenly her eyes widened and a smile spread across her face. “Oh! Can you... um...” She wiggled her fingers in the air, stopped, and gave up trying to think of the English word for what she wanted Nate to do. She reached for his pants tugged them, pointing to the ground with her other hand. Nate knelt down.

“Here you go!” Sissy cheered. She took the last bouquet out of the basket. She opened up one of the pockets on Nate’s jacket and placed it inside. Sissy pat the pocket down and grinned at Nate.

 **| You can keep it |**  
| I don’t want this crap |  
| Thank you |  
| ... |

“You can keep it.” Nate said. “I don’t need one and you don’t have any flowers for yourself.” It was an instinctive response. His brother had been allergic to flowers and it had been ingrained in him from a young age to refuse them because of that. Not that he had been offered flowers very often or that it mattered anymore.

“That’s okay,” Sissy told him. “I don’t want any flowers. I’m allergique.” She raised her palms to Nate’s eye level. The skin was red and slightly swollen. Multiple tiny bumps covered her fingers and thumbs. Nate was taken aback. He remembered Sissy telling him that she wanted to give everyone flowers, but he never expected her to be self-sacrificing about it. She must have been so uncomfortable, but she never complained. How many children were like that? He opened his mouth to speak when Sissy hugged him. His mouth snapped shut.

“Be careful.” Sissy said. Nate felt his fingers slowly comb through her hair and brush her dress on their own.

“We’re leaving.” Charlie spoke up. Nate opened his eyes. He hadn’t been aware that he closed them. The doctors that left with Dr. Nāgá brought gas cans and tubing. The other visitors had already taken them and were making their way to the van. He was still holding the little girl. Charlie stared at the two of them, impatiently waiting for Nate to finish with Sissy. He let her go. Sissy beamed at him as he rose.

“Au revoir!” Sissy said. Nate nodded to her. He turned and walked towards the parked cars. As he left, he found himself hoping that he would never see the little girl again.

\---

Nate took little interest in the area around him. There was nothing new to see. A person could only go to so many towns and cities before they all began to look the same. The abandoned buildings, the broken glass, the dried blood, the dead bodies, the silence; the apocalypse gave everything a unified design no matter how different the architecture of each region was.

“Maybe this car will have gas.” Nate said to himself.

**(o) Open gas cap**

Nate flicked the car’s gas cap open

**(o) Feed tubing down**

Nate took the clear tubing and forced one end down the gas tank. He put the other end to his mouth and sucked in.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

No gas came out no matter how much Nate inhaled. He moved the tubing away from his mouth and frowned.

“That’s the third car I’ve tried.” Nate muttered. “Maybe the others are having better luck than I am.” They were all on the same street, standing next to abandoned cars and trying to take gas. The closest person to him was Roxane. He made his way to her.

**(o) Talk to Roxane**

The sixteen year old, Nate still couldn’t _believe_ she was that young, was resting her arms and head against the roof of a car. She groaned softly. Nate assumed that she made herself dizzy trying to get the gas.

“Get anything?” Nate asked. Roxane’s head bobbed as she raised it to look at him. She paused before speaking. 

“Um, no. I didn’t.” Roxane told him. She looked at the gas can, hesitant to meet his eyes. When she did look up again, her stare was cautious and weary. “Did you really have to kill that guy? I know he was threatening us, but that was just...” She touched her neck. _“Awful.”_

| I’m sorry you had to see that |  
 **| He was going to kill all of you |**  
| You’re not interested in me anymore? |  
| ... |

“He was going to kill all of you.” Nate said.

“I know.” Roxane said. “...I’m going to go to another car.” She picked up her gas can and walked away from him. He troubled her now, Nate noticed. It didn’t bother him. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about the underage kid hitting on him anymore. He walked to Charlie next.

**(o) Talk to Charlie**

“Do you get any gas?” She asked Nate as he approached.

“Not yet.” Nate told her.

“Me too.” Charlie groaned.

“Maybe you’re not sucking hard enough.” Nate leered. “I know how you have a problem with that.” Charlie kicked his leg. He bounced backward, hissing in pain and snickering. She raised a hand to smack his arm and stopped.

“Why do you have my glasses?” Charlie asked. She lowered her arm.

 _“Your_ glasses?” Nate repeated. Charlie took the glasses out of Nate’s pocket.

“I’m the one who bought them for Vaughan.” She explained. “I put my name on the inside.” Charlie unfolded the temples of the glasses. She pointed to inside of the temples. Nate looked.

若久 戦輝凛 | Wakahisa Charlie

Nate arched a brow. He didn’t know that was there. It explained why Vaughan hadn’t changed his frames in years. Charlie folded the glassed and placed them back in Nate’s pocket.

“Make sure you don’t break them alright?” Charlie ordered. She tapped her finger on the glasses and forced them farther down the pocket. “Speaking about breaking, how do you feel about that man you killed?”

 **| I don’t feel much |**  
| You know how I feel |  
| I feel like a psycho |  
| ... |

“I don’t feel much, as usual.” Nate admitted. “It fucking sucks that I wasn’t able to kill him right away but... I’m fine.”

“Good.” Charlie said.

 _“Not_ fucking good.” Nate retorted.

“Nate.” Charlie said. “Remember what I said before.”

“Yes, and your boyfriend doesn’t agree.” Nate replied.

“My boyfriend had a _seizure_ and isn’t in the right frame of mind to give you good advice.” Charlie told him. “Just take _my_ advice, alright?” She took the tubing out of the car and moved on. Nate watched her go. He stopped himself from reflecting on the conversations he had with both Vaughan and Charlie. He had enough stress for one day. He continued walking forward.

**(o) Talk to Jude**

Nate laughed. It was clear that the car Jude was trying to get gas from was empty. Otherwise he would be drinking the gas. He was making hilarious snorting, slurping sounds as he tried very hard to get something out of the vehicle.

“If you keep that up you’re going to end up drinking whatever’s in the car.” Nate warned him. Jude removed the tubing out of his mouth and gasped.

“Dude,” Jude panted. “I don’t remember this being so hard.” Nate was going to ask Jude why he was so bad at it if he had siphoned gas out of a car before, but then he remembered that the man was really fucking high and decided he didn’t need to ask.

“This one empty,” Nate told him. “Go to another car.”

“Mmkay. By the way...” Jude paused. “Does that dude know he has boobs?” Nate blinked. He thought Jude was going to talk about Donald.

“What?” Nate asked. He followed the pothead’s gaze until he saw her. “...Are you talking about _Charlie?”_

“Yup.” Jude said.

“Charlie’s a girl.” Nate laughed.

“Nah dude.” Jude disagreed. “That’s a guy with boobs”. Nate laughed harder. The pothead shrugged. He walked off to the next car, leaving his equipment behind. Nate thought of telling him that he forgot to take his things, but decided that Jude would just come back for them later and said nothing.

Two cars away from him was Roxane’s father. Nate had no qualms with approaching him. If the bastard tried to hurt him again, he would kick his ass.

**(o) Talk to Roxane’s father**

“Did you get any gas?” Nate asked civilly. The father moved the tubing away from his mouth and frowned.

“No.” Roxane’s father replied. “I should have driven farther. These gas tanks must have been emptied by the last visitors who were at the camp.”

“Okay.” Nate said. That’s all he needed to know. Nate turned to leave.

“Wait.” The father said. Nate stopped, flexed his hands, and turned around. “You’ve stepped up when it was needed two times today. That says something good about your character. But if you make a move on my daughter again, you’ll be sorry. Good person or not.”

 **| I’LL be sorry? |**  
| I’m not a good person |  
| Sure whatever |  
| ... |

“ _I’ll_ be sorry?” Nate repeated, “You mean like earlier today, when you fought me and _I broke your fucking nose?”_ Roxane’s father self-consciously raised his hand to the bandage sitting on the middle of his face. Nate grinned. The man balled his hand into a fist.

“I swear to _God_...” The father warned.

| You swear to God WHAT? |  
| Will you relax? |  
 **| Is your daughter still sixteen? |**  
| ... |

“Is your daughter still sixteen?” Nate asked. The father frowned him.

“Of course she is.”Roxane’s father retorted.

“Then you have nothing to worry about.” Nate told him. “I’m _not_ a pedophile. I honestly didn’t know she was that young. So you can either let that go, or you can continue to threaten me and _I can break something else on your face.”_ The two men stared each other down. Nate understood that Roxane’s father was just trying to be a good dad, unlike _someone_ he knew, but he was completely prepared to beat the asshole up if he made a move to hit him. After a few tense seconds, father sighed. His shoulders relaxed and he stopped glaring at Nate.

“...Fine. Let’s start over.” The father said. He extended his hand. “My name is Raymond.” Nate squinted at Raymond’s hand. Was this a trick? If he took hold of the man’s hand, would he try to break it?

**(o)**

Nate shook his hand.

“I’m Nate.” He said. They both let go at the same time.

“...Does your girlfriend know you’re hitting on other people?” Raymond said after a moment of awkward silence. “Now I know we’re trying to start fresh so you probably don’t want to hear this, but cheating on your girlfriend is not going to help you through the apocalypse.” Nate felt like rolling his eyes. His man was in dad-mode even when he wasn’t being an over protective dick.

“My girlfriend?” Nate asked.

“The pretty one over there.” Raymond said. He pointed to Charlie. Nate shook his head.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” He said.

“Oh. So how did you meet up with her?” Raymond was making an effort to keep the conversation going.

**| Tell him long version |**

| Tell him short version |

“I knew her long before the apocalypse. When I was a kid I...” Nate paused, contemplated on whether or not he should actually tell Raymond how they met, and decided to tell him anyways. “I saw her kill a dog.”

“What!?” Raymond cried. Nate shrugged.

“Yup.” He said causally. “I watched her do it. I didn’t think of leaving because I was so stunned. After she was done she turned around and looked directly at me. I screamed and ran all the way home. I was afraid to outside because I thought I’d see her again, but I never thought she would be at my school. So when I saw her there I nearly shat my pants.”

“You pussy.” Charlie spoke from behind him. She went to his side. Raymond looked at her apprehensively.

“I’m not afraid of you _anymore_.” Nate said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, I was ten. You were twelve and _horrifying._ Anyways, she saw me too. That day at lunch she came over and sat beside me. She threatened to hurt me if I told anyone what I saw. I was fucking scared-”

“Because you were a pussy.” Charlie interrupted.

“-But I thought that if I talked to her, she would like me and decide not to hurt me.” Nate said. “So before she left I started asking her different things; what’s her favorite TV show, what kind of food did she like, why did she look black and Asian at the same time...”

“I only answered him because I found it interesting that he was scared but still wanted to talk to me.” Charlie explained.

“And then we became friends.” Nate said. Raymond stared at the two of them, bemused and startled by their friendship origin. He struggled to find something else to say.

“So you two never dated?” Raymond finally asked.

“No, we did.” Nate told him. “How old was I when we dated?”

“It was just after Casey...” Charlie let that sentence die. “So you would have been nineteen.”

“Right. We dated for two years before we broke up.” Nate said.

“I sent him to the hospital. And not in the _fun_ way either.” Charlie told Raymond.

 _“We_ sent _each other_ to the hospital. And before you say anything,” Nate said as he saw Raymond’s mouth fly open. “She hit me first. I’m _not_ a wife beater.”

“I won, by the way.” Charlie announced.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘you won’?” Nate scoffed.

“The fight we had. I won it.” Charlie said.

“No _I_ won.” Nate insisted.

“You stayed in the hospital longer than I did.” Charlie told him.

“That’s because you left early. If you stayed like you were _supposed to_ then you would have been there as long as I was.” Nate said. Charlie huffed out air. She tried to keep herself from laughing. Nate grinned at her and she unwillingly smiled back.

“You don’t strike me as the type to keep contact with your exes.” Raymond blurted out, wanting to get past this disturbing conversation.

“I’m not. I wasn’t planning on ever seeing Charlie ever again after she left the hospital.” Nate told him. “But years later, Vaughan- that’s the friend whose sick at the camp- calls me and says that he has a girlfriend and he wants me to meet her. I go to his house to see her and its _motherfucking Charlie.”_

“You really weren’t expecting me?” Charlie snickered.

“Not even a little bit.” Nate chimed. “Anyways, because Vaughan was dating her I ended up talking to Charlie and that’s how we became friends again.”

“You were a terrible boyfriend.” Charlie said.

 _“You_ were a terrible boyfriend.” Nate teased. Charlie kicked his leg. Nate hopped away from her, laughing and hissing in pain. Raymond smiled despite himself. Nate managed to stop bouncing and looked back at Roxane’s father.

“I should-” _Look for more gas,_ is what Nate wanted to say. An alarm going off in the distance cut off his words. Everyone stopped moving.

“What the fuck is that!?” Charlie shouted. Roxane turned to her father, wide-eyed.

“Dad!” Roxane cried. “It’s the alarm for the van!” Everyone dropped their equipment and ran towards the direction of the van. Jude dashed ahead of the rest of them, running at an incredible speed. He turned the corner while the others struggled to keep up with him.

“Ah shit!” They heard Jude shout. He came running back around the corner. The pothead stopped in front of them. “Dudes! You do _not_ want to go back to the van! There are like, _fifteen_ of the cannibals surrounding it!”

“Then let’s shoot them away!” Roxane said.

“No!” Raymond and Charlie snapped. Roxane looked at the two of them, alarmed.

“More will be coming. We have to get away from the van until the alarm stops.” Charlie ordered. They turned; ready to sprint back up the road. More zombies were emerging from where they had come from.

“Fuck!” Raymond yelled. Nate’s head whipped around the area as he tried to find somewhere they could all escape to. The buildings were probably locked, but should they risk trying to open one? What if there were zombies inside? Would it be safer to try to stay on the side streets? Nate hissed as Charlie kicked his leg.

“Ow! _What?”_ Nate groaned. Charlie pointed to the building to the left of them.

“There’s a ladder.” Charlie said. “We can climb up and stay on the roof until the noise stops.” The ladder was higher than any one of them could jump to reach. Nate shook his head.

“We can’t...” Nate’s eyes fell upon a dumpster. “We can push that over here and use it to climb up.” Charlie followed his gaze to the dumpster and nodded. Nate clapped his hands. Raymond, Roxane, and Jude looked at him.

“Okay,” Nate asserted. “This is what’s going to happen. Raymond-”

 **| Help push the dumpster |**  
| Distract the zombies |  
| Shoot the zombies |  
| ... |

“-You’re going to help me push that dumpster over here. Roxane-”

 **| Help push the dumpster |**  
| Distract the zombies |  
| Shoot the zombies |  
| ... |

 “-You’re also going to help push the dumpster. Jude-”

| Help push the dumpster |  
 **| Distract the zombies |**  
| Shoot the zombies |  
| ... |

 “You’re going to run around and distract the zombies. And Charlie-”

| Help push the dumpster |  
| Distract the zombies |  
 **| Shoot the zombies |**  
| ... |

“You’re going to keep these fuckers off our ass. Now let’s go!” Jude began running in circles, zigzagging and bouncing away from the monsters. Charlie readied her gun. Nate, Raymond, and Roxane darted to the dumpster. They went to the side opposite of the dumpster and pressed their bodies against it. “Push!” Nate yelled.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

The three of the shoved against the dumpster. It made a scraping shriek as it was moved across the pavement. The noise wasn’t as loud as the alarm, but it still hurt Nate’s ears. They pushed it a few meters before they had to stop to rest.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

They shoved again, growling as they tried to make the dumpster get to the building faster. Nate heard Charlie’s gun go off. Jude was panting hard.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

“One last push! _C’mon!”_ Nate yelled. They heaved against the dumpster as hard as they could. It slid against the ground and hit the building.

“We got it! Haul your ass over here!” Nate bellowed to Charlie and Jude. Roxane was the first to climb up the ladder. Raymond watched his daughter go up to the roof before climbing up himself. Charlie ran to the dumpster. She gave Nate a quick nod before jumping on the dumpster and dashing up the ladder. Jude was still running around in circles. Nate whistled. Jude turned and ran towards him. The zombies groaned and trailed behind him.

“Thanks dude. I would have kept running forever.” Jude panted.

“Go!” Nate said. Jude climbed up. Nate put his arms on the top of the dumpster. He made to push himself up but paused. He quickly looked up at the ladder, then at the advancing zombies.

“Nate! What are you _doing!?”_ Charlie called from the roof. He took his arms off the top of the dumpster, placed them on the sides, and pushed.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

Nate’s body strained to move the dumpster away from the ladder. It inched forwards slowly, _too_ slowly. The zombies were getting closer.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

Nate gave one huge shove. The dumpster was completely removed from under the ladder. He climbed up the dumpster. He bent his knees and jumped.

**(o)**

He caught on to the handle of the ladder. His body swung to the side but he held on. He quickly climbed up the ladder before the monsters could grab at his legs. Nate went to the top and collapsed on the paved roof.

“Are you alright?” Roxane asked. Nate nodded and sighed.

“Why did you do that?” Raymond asked. Nate slowly sat up.

“I wasn’t sure if they can climb ladders,” Nate explained. “So I had to push the dumpster to make sure they couldn’t come up here.” Roxane and Raymond looked over the edge at the zombies below.

“You are fucking crazy dude.” Jude said. The pothead stood up and walked around the roof. He took out a stick of marijuana and began to smoke it. Charlie knelt in front of him. She raised her hand and Nate was sure she was going to smack him across the face.

“Idiot.” She said. Charlie placed a hand under his chin and used the other to brush dirt off his face. “You are so fucking dumb.”

“Bawkaw.” Nate grinned. Charlie flicked him in the forehead and tried not to smile.

“When these freaks leave we are going straight to the camp, gas or no gas.” Raymond told his daughter. He took hold of her arm and moved her away from the edge of the roof.

“But dad, we need the gas for the generators.” Roxane argued.

“I kind of wanted to see them too.” Jude said. Charlie’s eyes got wide. She moved her hands from Nate’s face and frowned at the ground.

“We will go looking for gas again, but after we go back to the camp.” Raymond said. Charlie stood up abruptly.

“I have to go.” Charlie murmured.

“What do you mean _you have to go?”_ Nate asked. She ignored him. Charlie walked around the edge of the roof, trying to find another ladder. Nate stood up and went after her. The other side of the building held another ladder. Nate caught her arm before she could go down.

“If you think you can leave and not get hurt, then you are a fucking mor-” Nate’s words were cut off as Charlie pressed her gun against his forehead. _“Are you serious?”_

“I need to check something out. If I’m wrong then there won’t be a problem, but if I’m right then Vaughan will be in danger.” Charlie said. “Let go of my arm.” The other three stared at the two of them, keeping a safe distance away from the conflict.

| Why would Vaughan be in danger? |  
 **| I’m not letting you go |**  
| Just be careful |  
| ... |

Nate tightened the grip on her arm.

“I’m _not_ letting you go.” He growled. “You’re being a dumbass. Dr. Nāgá’s arm is creepy, I get it, but the camp itself is fine. You’re are going to get yourself killed for _no reason!”_ Charlie glowered at him. She slowly lowered the gun from his forehead. Nate loosened his grip. Before he could react, Charlie raised the gun again and smashed it against the side of his head. Nate swore and clutched the injured area, letting go of Charlie. She turned and ran to the ladder. Nate recovered in time to see her go down the ladder.

 _“Charlie!”_ Nate screamed.

\---

Troubling things had happened to Nate in his life, but he honestly believed that none of those moments affected him to any lasting degree. He had, for example, grown up in a household with aggressive and neglectful strangers who insisted that they were his parents. But unlike Casey, his stupid brother, Nate realized at a young age that if he stayed out of the house he wouldn’t have to deal with their nonsense. So he did, and in his mind he believed that he saved himself from being scarred by his parents.

Putting all the bad parts of his life aside, as a whole Nate’s life before the apocalypse had been good. He never suffered through long periods of boredom, what he lacked in being popular he made up in having a small group of very close friends, he had a good job, his sex life wasn’t that bad either, and he was generally contented with the way things were.

Therefore he couldn’t understand why, as he walked through the field of dead flowers toward the building in the distance, the voices coming out of the overcast sky were all of from bad moments in his life. These voices were contained in visible pockets of sound that would intensify and lessen depending on how close or far away he was to them.  Nate trudged forward and reached another pouch of angry noise.

_Stop crying! **Boys** don’t cry!_

_But you’re **hurting** me..._

_Damn right, I’m hurting you! Who said you could grow your hair out? No son of mine is going to walk around this neighborhood looking like **a Goddamn pussy**. I said stop crying! Are you a **girl!?** _

_No dad..._

_Then fucking stop it and sit up straighter. If I cut you with these Goddamn scissors then it’s your fault, alright?_

_Okay..._

The more he walked, the less it felt like he were moving toward the building. Instead, the building seemed to be advancing towards him. It came closer to him in the same sluggish speed as he was walking. This made the building no less intimidating. It looked like a face to Nate. A giant, distorted face with huge pores and multiple damaged eyes.

_Mom, can you say that again in English? I can’t understand you when your speaking French._

_Nate, honey, I **said** get mommy another beer._

_Um, don’t you think you’ve had enough to drink?_

_I’ve had enough when I **say** I’ve had enough. Now get me another beer and **stop** talking back to me, it’s annoying._

_...Fuck **you** mom._

_What? What did you say!? I have done **nothing** to deserve that kind of attitude! It’s... It’s not **my** fault I drink, okay!? Your father is the reason why I’m like this! I’ve done **nothing** wrong..._

_Mom? D-don’t cry mom. I’ll get you another one. Just hold on._

_Thank you, honey._

It was going to eat him. Nate’s feet kept moving but he wasn’t covering anymore ground. The building was and it would swallow him whole. Why was he walking towards this terrifying building in the first place? Why couldn’t he turn around and run somewhere else? The entrance of the building stalked closer.

_What do you **mean** you have fucking **AIDS!?**_

_I didn’t get sick on purpose Nate! It just happened!_

_AIDS doesn’t **just** happen, you dumbass!_

_I know! I know, I just... God!_

_Did you tell dad?_

**_No!_ ** _And you can’t tell him either!_

_Casey-_

_Nate, **please** don’t tell him! You know how he’s like! He only thinks that gays can get this. If dad thinks I’m gay, he’ll... I’ll be **lucky** if he only kicks me out of the house. We can’t tell him._

_...Fine. But how are you going to pay for your pills?_

_I don’t know._

**_Shit!_ ** _Casey... damn it Casey, don’t cry._

Nate knew that this was what going to hell would be like. No matter how good you thought your life was, you’d be force to relive every bad decision, every argument, everything you ever wanted to forget. Then a message would come to you, and it would say, ‘If you thought that was bad, wait until you step through hell’s gates’.

His message came in the form of writing on a door. _Please don’t._ Nate had assumed that this had been an empathetic, concerned warning to whoever came to the hospital. He knew better now. This wasn’t a warning; this was a sarcastic, uncaring, hateful sign. ‘Please don’t think things will get better’ the sign secretly said. ‘Please don’t believe that you’ll be okay. Please don’t forget to scream when you’re in hell’.

_I should have **never** married you! You killed our son!_

_For the last time, I did not kill Casey! The **fag** shot himself!_

_But it’s **your** fault! **You** made him do it! And now... **Why did you knock the casket over!?**_

_Because you wouldn’t shut your fucking mouth, that’s why!_

_I... Where are you going!?_

_I’m leaving, you **bitch!** I don’t have to deal with this shit._

_You **asshole!** You can’t leave! This is our son’s-_

**_Fuck you!_ **

_...Nate, sweetie, please pick up your brother. **God,** I can’t stop crying..._

He stood in front of the doors. The boards and nails sealing the doors shut melted into thick ooze. It dribbled down, taking the writing and its false concerns with it. Nate grabbed the handles, opened the door, and stepped through.

\---

The pharmacy looked as cold and abandoned as it had been when he’d been there three days ago. He pointed a flashlight he didn’t remember picking up and shone it at the store.

“You should shoot the zombies when they comes out.” A voice behind him said. Nate jerked his head to the left. It was Charlie.

“Charlie?” Nate breathed. “What are you _doing_ here? Why aren’t you in the truck?”

“That asshole and the fucking baby have been bothering you for what? Three days now?” Charlie continued, ignoring his question. “You have a gun, just shoot the both of them.” He felt something cold in his hands. Nate looked down and saw the gun.

“You don’t have to do that.” Another voice behind him spoke up. Nate turned his head to the right and saw Vaughan. “You can take the baby from the creature. You don’t have to shoot anything.”

“What the fuck would be the point of that?” Charlie asked. “The baby is just as dead as the other zombie.” Nate looked away from the both of them and stared at the pharmacy. His head hurt. He wanted them to leave him alone.

“It’s too late to save her, but killing them isn’t going to help you Nate.” Vaughan explained. “Remember what I said before, about taking a part of what happened to the baby holding on to it? You need to hold on to the humanity this gives you. It’s going to hurt you very much, but you’ll be better of for it in the long run.” Nate ground his teeth together.

Charlie hissed and shook her head. “No, that doesn’t make any sense because there is no more humanity in those things. _They’re dead._ What you need to do Nate, fill them full of lead. You can’t let them ruin your life like this. Take back control and fucking end them!”

| Can the both of you shut up? |  
 **| Go back to the truck |**  
| You’re going to attract zombies |  
| ... |

Nate turned his head and shouted. _“Get back to the fucking tr-”_ No one was behind him. Nate frowned. Where the hell did they go now? He turned his head back towards the pharmacy.

A decayed face was inches from his own.

Nate screamed. He jumped back, nearly tripping as he stumbled to get away from the monster. He found his footing and pointed his gun at the zombie.

The tiny monster in its hands moved the upper half of its body towards Nate. High-pitched snarling came out of the undead infant’s mouth. It stretched out it’s remaining arm, making grabbing motions towards Nate. The bigger zombie made no move to attack him. It only held the tiny, bloody mess in its hands and smiled.

**(o)**

He shot the monster in the face. Its brains erupted from its skull. The zombie flew backwards, the smaller creature dropping from its hands. It hit the hospital floor with a meaty thud. Nate stomped towards the zombie. He roared and shot it again.

**(o)**

There was no point in trying to take the baby back.

**(o)**

This was a nightmare.

**(o)**

The baby was dead.

**(o)**

Even if he tried to reclaim what was taken from him, the baby would _still be dead._

**(o)**

He hated this monster.

**(o)**

So fuck holding on to humanity.

**(o)**

This dead thing had _no_ humanity to give.

**(o)**

The last shot echoed out through the halls of the hospital. A shrill noise continued to bounce off the walls after echoes died down. It was the baby. Nate suffered so much now that she was dead because, in the end, she had been _his_ baby. It didn’t matter that he knew her for less than a day, it didn’t matter that he didn’t know if she really was a _she_ at all. He had quickly grown attached to the baby and did his best to take care of her. He fucked up so badly, but he had meant well. He really did.

**(o)**

He looked at the tiny thing that used to be a baby, _his goddamn baby_ , and shot it in the head.

**(?) You chose to kill the zombies**

“There you go.” Charlie said at his side. Nate jumped. _“Now_ you’re in control, and the puppy is finally dead.”

He stared at her. She returned his gaze, looking very proud. Nate felt sick. He just wanted to leave. He looked back down at the bloody mess on the floor. What he saw made his lungs turn to stone.

The baby’s skin was healthy and smooth. She was no longer torn in half. Her clothes, which had been clean, were now being stained red from the bullet wound in her head.

He had shot a healthy baby.

Every bone in his body, every fiber of his being, shook in shock. His throat closed and he could barely breathe. He was mortified beyond feeling the need to scream. How did this happen? He didn’t murder her. She was already dead. Wasn’t she already dead?

“This is what will make you a great survivor.” Charlie said into his ear. “Taking shit from _nobody_ and...” She paused. “Are you crying?”

Nate woke up when his hand touched his face. His eyes were dry. He let his hand drop into his lap. His emotions were losing intensity; his angst, fear, anxiety, and anger were melting away into a void inside his head. If he did not stop it, he would become an emotionless robot for a long time. Nate didn’t want to stop it though. That dream had been so Goddamn awful.

“You okay dude?” Jude asked. “You sounded like you were having a pretty bad dream.”

| I’m fine |  
| Leave me alone |  
| It was a nightmare |  
 **| ... |**

Nate didn’t respond. He stared at the seat in front of him, his head knocking against the window with the bumps of the road. He didn’t need emotions to live. Feels were overrated and painful. It was all right to sit in this van, surrounded by these strangers, and let himself go numb.

“Charlie didn’t come back, but I think he’ll be fine. That dude’s got balls of steel.” Jude reassured him. “I thought he’d come back to see us since we were on the roof for the entire day, but he’s probably chillaxing with the doctor dudes.” _Charlie._ She ran through streets filled with the undead just to see if Vaughan was safe. It was either love or extreme possessiveness that led her to do that. Either way, she was strong. Was he going to be weaker than a woman? Fuck that. He was going to hold on to his painful emotions and soldier it out, at least until he got a hold of his alcohol and used that. He was willing to weaken his emotions, but he would _not_ blank out without a fight. He was stronger than that bullshit.

The void in his mind closed as the van stopped.

“...Dad, are you sure you went to the right place?” Roxane sounded deeply confused.

“I’m positive. That’s Nate’s truck over there.” Raymond told her. He sounded just as puzzled as his daughter.

“But... then where are all the tents?” Roxane asked. Nate moved his head off the window. Why did Roxane not know where the tents where? It was morning; her and her father should have been able to see them where they sat. Nate opened the door and stepped out of the van.

All the tents were gone. The only sign that any had ever been there were the squared and rectangle indents in the grass where the tents once stood. The doctors were gone, the workers were gone, the patients were gone. The only vehicle that was left in the makeshift parking lot was Nate’s truck.

“Dudes, I don’t know if I’m just that high, but I don’t see any tents.” Jude stated, mildly concerned.

| Charlie isn’t here |  
 **| Where’s Vaughan? |**  
| Where did everything go? |  
| ... |

“Where’s Vaughan?” Nate rattled. He didn’t know the first thing about seizures, but he thought a person wasn’t supposed to move much after they had one. How sick was Vaughan now?

“They left? They left without us!?” Raymond cried. His head whipped around, as if glaring at the area around them would materialize everything and everyone back to where they were supposed to be. Roxane spoke French, her tone furious and terrified.

Nate walked to his truck. He didn’t know what else to do.

**(o) Look at truck**

The food, the first aid kits, the alcohol, the baby equipment he never got around to throwing out; everything in the back of the truck was _gone._

“They took all my shit.” Nate growled. He needed to punch something. If Nate got his hands on those doctors, especially Dr. Nāgá and her dead arm, he would kill them for taking both Vaughan and his-

Nate heard a noise coming from the inside his truck. He pulled out his gun and edged slowly to the passenger’s window. He reached for the handle and readied his gun.

**(o) Open door**

He flung the door open. He pointed the gun inside.

“Nate!” The little girl cried. It was Sissy. Nate’s finger was on the trigger. He could have shot her. He thought back to his nightmare and shivered.

Sissy crawled out of the truck. Nate knelt down, dropping the gun and catching her before she fell onto the ground. She curled up in his hold and cried. The others jogged over to the two of them.

 **| What happened? |**  
| Are you alright? |  
| Where’s all my stuff? |  
| ... |

“What happened Sissy?” Nate coaxed.

“They took everybody!” Sissy sobbed. “They got a truck and they put maman and all the sick people inside! I wanted to go too but they wouldn’t take me! They gave me food and water and told me to stay in the truck.” Nate looked in the truck. Opened cans, empty chip bags, and bottles of water littered the inside. The box of whiskey was on the floor of the passenger’s side. Nate wondered why they left the whiskey behind.

“Do you know where they went?” Raymond demanded.

“Non.” Sissy said. “Je veux ma maman.” The little girl pressed her face against Nate’s chest and whimpered. Her tears fell on a piece of folded paper that she held in her hands. Nate took it from her and opened it up.

It was Charlie’s handwriting.

**_Asshole!_ ** _I fucking told you something was wrong with this place! ‘When I came back to the camp, they were taking everybody and leaving! **They took Vaughan!** _

_I followed them to some building. I think it might be a clinic or something. I don’t know what they’re planning to do, but it does not look like they’re trying to help **shit!** I wrote instructions on how to get there. I’ll be waiting for you outside. _

_Come quickly, you stupid asshole. **We don’t have much time!**_

A wave of relief came from knowing that Charlie was alive, but the words bouncing around in his head made the relief minor.

_They took Vaughan. We don’t have much time._

“When did Charlie give you this?” Nate asked the little girl. She looked up at him and wiped her eyes.

“In the afternoon.” She said softly.

“Fuck.” Nate hissed. Sissy flinched. Nate stroked her hair to calm her down. He turned his head to the others. “I know where they are. We have to leave now!”

“Wait.” Roxane said before the others could ask any questions. “What about Sissy? Who’s going to stay behind and take care of her?”

“I want to come!” Sissy whined.

“No. You’re staying here.” Raymond ordered. “And I refuse to stay. I’m not going to sit by while my daughter is in the hands of those bastards. Roxane will stay here.”

“What?” Roxane said. “No, I want to help save Renée!”

“You’ll be safer here!” Raymond told her.

“I stay with the little lady.” Jude said.

“Yeah dad, he’ll do it!” Roxane agreed.

“He’s too high to take care of a little girl.” Raymond said.

“And he’s not too high to go on a rescue mission?” Roxane argued.

“Dudes chill!” Jude said. “Nate will decide what we do.” Nate looked up. He had been staring at Sissy the entire time, waiting for the other three to stop fighting.

“What?” Nate asked.

“Roxane wants me to stay, her dad wants her to stay, and I don’t care either way.” Jude explained. “Whatever you choose I’ll agree with you so the votes don’t get messed up.”

| Jude stays |  
 **| Roxane stays |**  
| Sissy comes |  
| ... |

“Roxane should stay here.” Nate decided.

**(?) You chose to make Roxane stay**

“Mmkay.” Jude said. Raymond walked back to the van. Roxane went after her father, yelling at him in French. Nate felt Sissy’s body tremble against him. He held her tighter.

“I want to go.” The little girl’s voice was deflated. Nate rested his chin on the top of her head.

“Well you can’t.” Nate told her.

“Why not?” Sissy asked.

| Because we said so |  
| Because you’ll be safe |  
 **| Because I’m shit |**  
| ... |

“Because I’m a piece of shit. I’d probably get you killed baguette.” Nate’s voice was soft. This was what kids did to you, he realized. They come into your life, ruin you, and make you brittle. Children are fucking gross.

“Oh.” Sissy said simply. She sniffed and tugged at Nate’s jacket.

“Yeah.” Nate agreed. He combed his fingers through her hair. _“Oh.”_ Angry, French shouting fill the silence that passed between them. Nate closed his eyes. He was going to kill many people today, he was sure of it. Did it bother him? No. Did his indifference to the lives he would take bother him? Yes, but he could push it aside it he tried.

“I think you’ll save everyone.” Sissy mumbled. Nate opened his eyes.

“Why is that?” Nate asked.

“Because you saved me.” Sissy told him. “You’re like a super-héros.”

 **| I’m not a hero |**  
| Sure kid |  
| And you’re my sidekick? |  
| ... |

Nate shook his head.

“I’m not a hero, kid.” Nate said.

“You are to me.” Sissy reassured him. Nate chuckled. It sounded weak.

“Are we leaving now?” Raymond asked impatiently. Nate nodded. Roxane was shaking next the van. Jude stood beside Raymond, waiting for Nate to tell them where to go. Sissy sucked the tip of her thumb. Nate glared at the paper in his hand.

“They’re going to regret taking them from us.”


	5. Walk Among Cobras (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, I am only posting part 1 because part 2 isn’t done yet and I wanted to make sure at least some of chapter five gets read before season 2 comes out. If season 2 wasn’t coming out soon, then I would’ve posted both parts on the same day.

_This game series adapts to the choices you make._

_The story is tailored by how you play._

TELLTALE GAMES

presents

 

in association with

SKYBOUND ENTERTAINMENT

 

Nate’s eyes darted from the buildings, to the paper in his hands, and back to the buildings again. He had never focused so fervently on words scribbled on paper in his life. Though Charlie had made very clear instructions on how to get to the clinic, Nate kept checking to make sure he was going the right way. He ran over a pothole in the road and heard Jude and Raymond yelp in surprise.

Nate looked the other men through the rearview mirror. He knew they chose to sit in the back of the truck because they were afraid of him, afraid of the sanity that kept leaving his eyes. Nate could feel his facial features go dark and tense with the rage and fear that stung his brain. He could tell that he sometimes looked like he’d turn on Jude and Raymond just because they were there.

Nate shook his head. He needed to calm down. This situation was going to be harder to deal with if his only allies were paranoid of him. Nate huffed out a frustrated gust of air. This was stupid. Jude and Raymond had nothing to worry about. He had no reason to turn on them. The doctors, on the other hand, had every reason to be afraid. If anything happened to Charlie or Vaughan...

Nate caught his reflection in the mirror. The face he saw staring back at him made his blood freeze. He looked like he had just escaped an insane asylum. His eyes were wide and predatory, shining with macabre intensity. His lips were pulled back in a mute snarl. The lines in his face deepened, enhancing the wild look. Nate quickly averted his eyes from the mirror. He shook his head as if the crazed appearance was only superficial and a flick of the head would make him normal.

“Calm down.” Nate ordered himself, his voice strained and husky. “Fucking _calm down.”_ His grip on the steering wheel tightened. No matter what happened, everything would be over by the end of the day. Either he’d get his friends back or he’d burn the clinic to the ground. No need to drive himself crazy. Or _crazier,_ anyways.

Nate slowed to a stop beside one of the buildings. It wasn’t the clinic, but Charlie had written that the clinic had security cameras. She wasn’t sure if they were active but suggested that he park away from the clinic in case they were. Nate pocketed the keys and stepped out. The truck shook as Jude and Raymond hopped off the back. Raymond looked around the area tentatively, the muscles in body visibly tensing. Jude stretched his arms in front of him, wiggling them as he cracked his neck.

“Where are we supposed to meet the Blasian dude?” Jude asked after he finished stretching. It took a moment for Nate to realize what he was talking about. Charlie. Nate looked back at the wrinkled note, slightly moistened with sweat.

_I’ll be waiting for you outside._

_“Where_ outside, you dumb bitch?” Nate hissed. None of the concern he felt came through in his voice. Jude and Raymond looked at each other. Unease wrinkled the both of their faces, though the pothead seemed less troubled. Nate looked up from the paper and forced himself stop frowning.

“Charlie didn’t say _exactly_ where she’d be.” Nate told them. He pocketed the note in his jacket and huffed.

“That’ll make finding her difficult.” Raymond said. “She’ll be hiding from the doctors so she won’t be readily visible, and we can’t run the risk of calling out for her in case we’re heard by the wrong people.” Jude nodded in agreement, doing so in such way that he resembled a bubblehead.

 **| There’s no point looking for her |**  
| We have to try to find her |  
| We can split up and look for her |  
| ... |

“There’s no point looking for her, she’ll already be inside.” Nate said after a pause. “We took too long to come here. There’s no way she’ll still be waiting for us. She broke in and went Rambo on their asses hours ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if she already rescued everyone.”

**(?) You decided not to look for Charlie**

Nate smiled at the mental image of Charlie beating the shit out of the doctors. She would show them no mercy, which was fine by him. Especially when dealing with the head doctor and her nasty dead arm. He hoped Charlie clawed her eyes out. Assuming she was able to get that far. Nate’s mood soured again.

“Are you sure?” Raymond asked.

“Positive.” Nate murmured. If Charlie were waiting for him, she’d be safer where she was. If she were inside, she’d need all the assistance she could get.

“Mmkay, cool.” Jude said. Nate walked forward. Raymond hurried to his side while Jude trailed behind him.

“What’s the plan?” Raymond asked.

“We’re breaking in.” Nate said.

“I know that, but _how_ are we breaking in?” Raymond asked. Nate pulled out his gun. Raymond flinched, stumbling over his feet. Nate wiggled the gun his hand, the barrel pointed in front of him.

“Charlie found a blind spot.” Nate explained. He flicked his wrist, pretending to fire the gun. “I’m going to shoot out one of the windows in the blind spot and then we’ll go through.”

“They’ll hear the gun go off.” Raymond told him. He pulled nervously at the bandage on his nose.

“But dude,” Jude chimed in. “They won’t know that we’re coming in _advance._ We’ll be like samurais and shit.”

“You mean ninjas.” Raymond corrected. Jude gave him another bubblehead nod. They continued the rest of the way in silence. Following the instructions, they went to the building closest to the clinic and climbed up the outer stairs. After reaching the roof, they positioned themselves were the blind spot was located. A thick pipe was attached to the wall of the building and the three men scaled down it to the narrow alleyway below; Nate going first, Jude and Raymond following after him.

After his feet touched the ground, he turned towards the clinic. A large window was directly in front of him. Nate scooted to the left side of the window and peered in. It was an office. No one was inside. Jude and Raymond stalked to the right of the window.

Nate drew out his gun once again. Releasing the safety, he stepped away from the wall and aimed at the window.

**(o)**

The bullet soared through the glass. Shards flew into the office and fell on the ground. Nate broke the glass fragments attached to the windowsill with the butt of his gun.

“Let’s go.” Raymond said.

| Enter |

**| Wait |**

Nate grabbed Raymond’s arm before he could pull himself over the windowsill.

**(?) You decided to wait**

“Hold up.” Nate said.

“What? Why?” Raymond asked.

“Just trust me.” Nate said. He crouched down. Raymond frowned at him before also crouching down. Jude shrugged and lowered himself to the ground, grabbing onto Raymond’s shoulder when he lost balance.

The office door slammed opened. Footsteps galloped inside the room.

“The window!” A voice cried.

“What the hell!?” Another voice. The sound of footsteps increased. Nate looked up and saw a head sticking out the window. The doctor’s hands tightly grasped the windowsill. His fingers were inches away from Nate’s head. The three men froze. The doctor’s head whipped around, searching the alleyway. Nate raised his gun, ready to shoot if the man looked down.

“Warn the others! There’s been another intruder!” The doctor scurried from the window. The footsteps faded away. The three men peaked into the office. The doctors were gone. Nate hopped into the room, the other two followed.

“Good call.” Raymond said. Jude nodded.

| Thanks |

 **| Let’s keep going |**  
| Whatever |  
| ... |

“We have more work to do. C’mon.” Nate told them. He poked his head out the door. The hallway was clean. No bullet holes in the walls, no papers on the ground, no blood splattered anywhere. Nothing like the hospital. Frantic voices echoing to the right of him pushed the thought out of his mind.

“Left.” Nate whispered to the other men. He opened the door as little as possible and all three of them snuck through. They moved quickly and silently through the halls.

He didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know where his friends were. Besides screaming ‘Vaughan! Charlie!’ like a lunatic, Nate figured catching one of the doctors alone and making them tell him their location was the best thing to do. Though most, if not all the doctors, must have known more intruders had infiltrated the clinic. If they weren’t in pairs for protection, they would be armed. Of the three of them, Nate was the only one with a weapon. He didn’t know what the doctors would be carrying. His handgun wouldn’t do shit against an assault rifle.

Voices, loud and urgent, came from the hall intersecting the one they were in. The voices were growing louder. Nate opened a random door and ushered the two men into the room. He closed the door silently behind him before the doctors turned the corner.

The room had a series of beds on one side and counters on the other. The three of them positioned themselves beside a counter. Nate tried to speak but Jude waved his unformed words away. The pothead mouthed the word “doctor” before placing a finger over his lips. Nate peaked over the counter top. The doctor who had been fighting with Donald when Nate first arrived to the camp was standing in front of a zombie lying in bed. The zombie was growling at the man. It kept lifting its upper body off the bed, but its restrained arms kept it from moving farther.

Nate shot Jude and Raymond a puzzled look, which they mirrored. Why was the doctor keeping the monster alive? Were they trying to find a way to control zombies? Was that why they kidnapped the sick at the camp, to add to their undead army?

The doctor picked up a small, black recording device and began speaking. All three of them watched him.

“Dr. Phanin presiding over patient thirty-three. Day forty-one since the outbreak.” The doctor droned. “Despite injection of the vaccine, the patient succumbed to the virus. On an interesting note, the time frame between the injection and reanimation was four minutes and thirty-five seconds. This is the most rapid case of transformation I have ever seen. The patient was originally stricken with the HIV, therefore I can only presume that AIDS speeds up the infection processes.” AIDS. It was Sissy’s mother. Though Nate never saw her at the camp, he could see a likeness to the little girl in the undead woman’s face.

A loud snap echoed in the room. The zombie reached towards Dr.Phanin, arm broken off at the wrist. The doctor picked up a gun off the counter and shot it in the head. The three men ducked.

“I would need more test subjects to make a definite conclusion to this.” Dr. Phanin continued, placing the gun back down. “However, I will not make an active effort to acquire more subjects with AIDS. We are trying to find a cure, not an irritant for the virus.”

“A _cure?”_ Nate murmured to himself.

“Shit...” Jude gasped. The doctors’ plan suddenly formed in Nate’s mind. They took people they believed weren’t going to survive long and injected them with the zombie virus and vaccine. Then they waited to see if it would work. If it didn’t, no harm was done because in their eyes those people were going to die anyways. Nate fumed. Vaughan’s illness wasn’t incurable, and even if it was Nate wasn’t going to let his friend became a dead lab rat.

“We should sneak up on him, hold him down, and make him tell us where the others are.” Raymond whispered. The doctor wrote in a notebook, his back turned to them.

“I’ll grab the gun.” Nate told them. “Cover me.”

**/!\ Press and hold the left mouse button, then push the mouse forward. Push slowly to sneak up quietly, or quickly to jump out**

Nate crept forward; back hunched, knees bent, eyes fixed on the doctor. Getting closer, he spared a glace at the gun. There were three glock magazines surround it. Before he was able to reach for the gun, the doctor spin around and threw the notebook at his head. Nate flinched backward. It surprised him more than it hurt. Before he was able to recover from the attack, Dr. Phanin launched himself at him. The doctor grabbed onto both of his arms, yanking hard at the one holding the gun.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

Nate pulled his arms back. It felt as though he and the doctor were dancing violently with each other. Jude and Raymond grabbed the doctor’s shoulders, tore him off of Nate, and forcibly sat him on the bed. Nate pocketed the doctor’s gun and magazines. Now he had something to arm Charlie with. He didn’t know how good a shot she was, but he knew she’d learn quickly in a situation like this. Assuming she was still alive.

“How did you get in here!?” Dr. Phanin demanded. He kept struggling until Nate pointed the gun at his face. The doctor glared at him with a mixture of fear and outrage.

“Not important.” Raymond said. “Where are the people you kidnapped?” The doctor averted his eyes.

| Answer the question |  
| Do you think this is a joke? |  
 **| [Hurt doctor] |**  
| ... |

Nate brought the side of the gun to the left side of Dr. Phanin’s head. He fired. The volume burst the doctor’s eardrum. He cupped his ear, doubling over and screaking in pain. Blood leaked through his fingers. Raymond nodded in approval, taking a few steps away from Nate.

“Shit dude. Just... shit.” Jude groaned. The pothead retrieved a joint from under his shirt. He lit it, inhaling deeply. Nate grabbed the doctor’s hair and pulled. Dr. Phanin yapped as he was forced to make eye contact.

“You didn’t answer him, so I assume that your ears were clogged.” Nate’s voice was low. “I’m pretty sure I just fixed that though, so let me repeat the question. You better think _really fucking hard_ about the answer you give. _Where are the people you kidnapped?”_ He let go of the doctor’s hair.

“We’re doing this to help everyone!” Dr. Phanin hollered at him. “We’re trying to insure the survival of humanity! Our future is more important than the lives of a few people!”

| They never wanted to help you |  
| Maybe you’re right |  
 **| [Hurt doctor] |**  
| ... |

Nate slapped him with gun. The doctor’s head whipped to the side. A tooth flew out.

“Fuck...” Jude moaned. The pothead turned away from the bleeding doctor and the violent man with the crazy eyes. Nate raised the gun again. Dr. Phanin darted forward. He pushed Nate aside before he could bring the gun down. The doctor rushed for the door. Nate chased after him.

Dr. Phanin tripped as he exited the room. His body hit the floor with a loud smack. Nate stomped on his back as he tried to stand. He could feel the man’s boney spine through the soles of his shoes. He pressed his foot down. The doctor whined and coughed. Blood poured out of his ear and mouth onto the floor below.

“You don’t know what you’re doing, you idiot!” Dr. Phanin hissed like a scared cat pretending to be a lion. Nate wondered if his spine would crack or pop out of place. He smiled and applied more pressure.

The back of his head exploded with pain. A black filter went over his eyes. He collapsed to the floor. Consciousness was swimming away from him but he fought against it. Charlie and Vaughan were depending on him to stay alive, to save them. If he passed out, the doctors would kill him.

Nate felt himself being lifted into a sitting position. He opened his eyes. The dark filter dissolved into the clinic halls. Dr. Nāgá stood in front of him, looking down at the bleeding doctor. She held a baseball bat in her hand.

“You seem to be getting yourself into a substantial amount of trouble as of late.” Dr. Nāgá told Dr. Phanin. “No matter. You may leave now. There are more patients that need attending to.” The injured doctor stumbled to his feet. He limped away, hands over his mouth and ear. Dr. Nāgá watched him go for a brief moment before looking at Nate. Mild annoyance and curiosity radiated off of her.

“Hello Nate.” Dr. Nāgá said.

 **| Where are they? |**  
| I’ll kill you |   
| Fuck off |  
| ... |

“Where are they, you cunt!?” Nate screamed. He lunged at her, every cell in his body shrieking _‘murder the bitch’_. The doctors on either side of him held Nate back. He struggled against them, trying to fight them off, but the hit to his head sapped much of the energy. He couldn’t pull his arms away.

“You have no business knowing that information.” Dr. Nāgá told him.

“Fuck you! They’re my-”

“But now they’re mine.” Dr. Nāgá said. She leaned the bat on the wall and reached for something in her coat pocket. Nate focused all his attention on the bat, the guns in his pants forgotten.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

Nate reached forward. The doctor holding his outstretched arm pulled back. It was futile. The bat was out of his reach and he couldn’t get to it while restrained. Nate persisted still. They weren’t allowed to pretend to be a beacon of hope and tear the illusion away without repercussion. He was going to beat the shit of them with the bat and turn their bones into powder. He-

A sharp object entered Nate’s neck. It wasn’t in him for long. Nate only had the time to bark in surprise and pain before Dr. Nāgá pulled the object out. It was a syringe. The barrel was emptied of whatever fluid had been in there. The head doctor placed the syringe back into her pocket.

“What...” Nate croaked. The injected area burned. The world tilted for a few seconds. “What did you just-”

Jude and Raymond burst out of the room with a battle cry and chairs in their hands. They swung their “weapons” wildly, hitting the chests both doctors restraining Nate and nearly clipping Nate’s head. Dr. Nāgá reached for her bat. Jude threw his chair at her. It hit her in the back. She fell to the ground, landing on her undead arm.

“Run dude, _run!”_ Jude cried. Nate leaped to his feet. His brain floated to the top of his head before crashing down to the bottom of his jaw. Nate stumbled, gained his footing, and followed the other men.

Nate turned a corner, Jude and Raymond didn’t. Raymond backpedaled and called after him. Nate kept running. He didn’t know why he wasn’t listening to the older man. It was stupid for him to run off on his own. Maybe it was because Raymond and Jude took so long to intervene. Why hadn’t they tried to help him the moment he got caught?

The halls of the clinic tunneled. Nate found himself in a kaleidoscope of lights, noise, and pain. He tripped over a sound wave or a ray beam and fell.

And fell.

And fell.

* * *

 

His head had been put in a blender before being reattached to his body. That was the only explanation Nate’s muffled brain could think of for why he felt so dizzy and sick. That didn’t make much sense though. If his head had been in a blender, why wasn’t he dead? He didn’t know. He didn’t care. He wanted to go back to sleep.

“...ake up... Wake... ome on... I nee... you... ake up...” A woman’s voice, distorted by the fuzz spinning around in his brain. Hands went under his armpits and leaned him against a wall. Who was this? Why did she want him to wake up? He was already awake; he just didn’t want to open his eyes.

 **| Charlie? |**  
| Stay away from me |  
| I feel weird |  
| ... |

“Charlie?” Nate moaned. Was it Charlie? That seemed wrong, but he couldn’t remember why.

“No ...ot ...arlie.” The voice kept reeling away from him. “...need you... focus.” Nate slowly opened his eyes. The world was a bright haze of colors.

“...centrate. _Concentrate.”_ The woman ordered. He stared at the woman in front of him, trying to concentrate on her face. She and the rest of the world around her slowly came to focus. The woman noticed the clarity of his gaze and nodded.

“There we go.” She said. She took hold of his arm and pulled. Nate sluggishly raised himself off the ground. Standing his full height, he looked around. They were in a stairwell on the lowest level.

“Do you remember me?” The woman asked. “I’m Dr... just call me Ritika. We talked at the camp. I asked you to take the weed from that man but you didn’t listen to me.” She frowned at the memory of his unhelpfulness. “I found you passed out on the upper levels on this stairwell. I brought you to the basement so the others wouldn’t find you. How are you feeling?”

Nate looked her up and down. He remembered her, the rude woman who wanted to take Jude’s stash. Hadn’t she also been one of the people yelling at Donald and the other doctor to stop fighting? Donald, the crazy man who threatened to shoot the doctors because...

Because he knew the visitors were in danger.

Everything came back to Nate. Leaving the camp for gas, returning to find everyone gone, coming to the clinic, getting injected by the syringe. What had he been injected with? Was it the zombie virus? _Was he going to die?_

The muscles in Nate’s face tensed into a savage scowl. The doctors were doing everything in their power to ruin his life.

And this _bitch_ was one of them.

**| [Attack doctor] |**

| [Do nothing] |

Ritika saw the look in Nate’s eyes and knew he was going to attack her. She had enough time to raise her arms before he threw himself at her. The woman was rammed into the wall as Nate wrapped his hands around her throat. Her fingers, which had been level to her neck seconds before Nate attacked her, kept him from suffocating her completely. 

**(?) You attacked the doctor**

“Stop!” Ritika’s voice fought against the pain and rising panic. Nate felt weak and ill, but his anger heightened the power in his body.

| [Stop choking her] |  
| Make me |  
 **| Why? |**  
| ... |

“Why should I, you kidnapping bitch?” Nate seethed. He leaned forward, applying more pressure to his grasp. Nate could feel the bones in her fingers poking the palms of his hands. He would end up breaking them in an effort to straggle the woman if he continued. He couldn’t recall ever breaking anyone’s fingers in the past, but he knew it would be easier than breaking a neck.

“I’m on your side.” The woman rasped. She tried to push back, but Nate’s strength overpowered hers.

| [Stop choking her] |  
| Stop talking |  
 **| I don’t believe you |**  
| ... |

“I don’t believe you.” Nate growled. He couldn’t remove Ritika’s hands from her neck and run the risk her escaping, but he could pull her forward and bash her head into the wall until she died. It would be quick. She didn’t deserve a rapid death but he didn’t have the time to make it last.

“You won’t-” Ritika wheezed. “You won’t be able to find your friends if you kill me. _Stop!”_

| [Kill woman] |  
| You know where they are? |  
| Fine |  
 **| ... |**

He needed to see them again. The possibility that he was infected should have been his greatest concern, but it wasn’t. The fate of Charlie and Vaughan weighed him down the most. He was afraid he came too late. Afraid he failed to save them like he failed to save the baby. He couldn’t go through that a second time. He needed them to be all right. He needed to know they could make it on their own if he was infected. _He needed to see them again._

Ritika’s eyes rolled upwards. Nate let her go. He stepped out of the way as she collapsed forward.

**(?) You let the doctor live**

He waited through her coughing and panting fit until she was able to catch her breath. The woman rose to her feet, legs quivering. A purple bruise wrapped around her throat.

| Why the change of heart? |  
 **| Don’t betray me |**  
| Where are Vaughan and Charlie? |  
| ... |

“If you backstab me, I’ll kill you.” Nate warned.

“I won’t.” She told him.

“Why should I believe you?” He scoffed. The woman rubbed her neck.

“...When we were unpacking the camp, Dr. Nāgá wanted to take the little French girl.” She said. Nate’s eyes widened. Ritika continued. “A few of us convinced her to leave the girl behind. As I was picking out the supplies the little girl would need until the rest of the visitors came back, I thought about how wrong it was for Dr. Nāgá to suggest that we take her. Though our intention wasn’t to hurt her, she would most likely die. She didn’t deserve that.  She was innocent... but the other people we took were innocent too.”

“Our good intentions doesn’t change the trust we betrayed and the people we killed who came to us for help. It would be worth it if there were a possible cure for the virus, but I honestly believe there isn’t. We’re kidnapping people and murdering them for a hopeless cause. I don’t want to fight for that cause anymore. What you’re doing is far more selfless that what we’re doing now.” The woman’s hand dropped from her neck. She looked trustworthy and sounded sincere, but so had Dr. Nāgá.

 **| I’m not selfless |**  
| I understand |  
| I’m keeping an eye on you |  
| ... |

“I’m not selfless.” Nate told her. “You assholes kidnapping the sick people at the camp was a dick move, but I don’t give a shit. I don’t know those people.” The woman stared at him, her face growing tense with disbelief.

“The why-” She started.

“You _took_ one of my friends.” Nate’s tone caused Ritika to flinch. “The other one went after him and now she’s gone too. _You don’t fuck with my friends._ I only came for them. That’s it.”

“...You’re not going to save the others?” Ritika asked.

| Yes |  
| No |  
 **| Maybe |**  
| ... |

“...If Vaughan is well enough then maybe.” Nate told her after thinking it over. “But if he’s not then we’re getting the fuck out of here.” The woman opened her mouth, paused, and then closed it again. Nate assumed she wanted to chastise him but realized she was in no position to do so.

“...There’s a woman close by.” Ritika murmured. “She broke into the facility last night. I assume that’s the friend you’re talking about. I’ll take you to her.” She walked towards the door. Nate followed. He allowed himself to be relieved for a moment before paranoia took over. Charlie might be alive, but the doctor could be lying. Ritika could lead him to an ambush. Nate smiled. They wouldn’t kill him. He wouldn’t let them. He had to save his friends first. And if they were dead, he would murder everyone. Simple as that.

Nate’s smile stretched until his face hurt.

* * *

 

 

Every echo their footsteps made sounded like burglar alarms in the quiet of the basement halls. Nate didn’t pay attention to the noise, focusing instead on the doctor’s back and the doors they past, readying himself for potential attacks with gun in hand. Ritika slowed to a stop. Nate stopped with her, staring at the door she stood in front of. It looked like all the other doors they passed.

Ritika reached inside her pocket and pulled out a key. She placed it in the lock and turned it. A tiny click came from the door. Nate raised his gun. If this was a trap, he was prepared. The woman looked back. Her shoulders twitched when she saw the weapon. Nate jerked his gun, motioning for her to open the door. She looked back at the door, shoulders tense, and opened it.

The lights were off. Ritika flicked them on. It was a janitor’s closet. Cleaning equipment and a garbage were knocked over on one side of the room. Charlie sat across from it.

She hissed in pain, ducking her head in the crook of her arm. She was handcuffed to the pipes of a sink. Her clothes were wrinkled and dusty like she had been rolling on the floor. The right side of her face was also dirty and had two scratch marks going down her cheek. Her hair being pulled back in a bun had kept it from getting messy from the confrontation she had with the doctors.

Nate lowered the gun. He felt the nerves in his body and mind relax. He wasn’t too late. She was alive. Nate let out a short but greatly relieved laugh.

Charlie snapped her head up. She squinted her eyes, still not adjusted to the light. She didn’t look tired. Either she found a way to sleep despite her circumstances, or her plans for revenge had kept her energized like caffeine. Nate guessed it was the latter. Charlie took slow, hard blinks until she got used to the brightness of the room.

She glared at him, recognition lacking in her eyes.  A few moments past before the glare was replaced by wide-eyed shock. A look of absolute relief flashed over her face, a smile nearly formed on her lips, before it was replaced almost forced irritation.

“Oh look who it is,” Charlie said. “Sir ‘I’m thinking to hard’.”

 **| Madame ‘Rock up the ass’ |**  
| I can leave you here |  
| You’re really going to do this now? |  
| ... |

“Hello Madame ‘rock up the ass’.” Nate chimed. “Make any diamonds today?”

“Enough to drown you in.” Charlie retorted. Nate laughed. Ritika shifted in place. Charlie regarded the doctor scornfully.

“Here is the key to the handcuffs.” The doctor said. She placed the small key in Nate’s hand. He knelt down in front of Charlie. He lightly brushed the dirt off the side of her face. She let him, wincing whenever he accidently touched the scratch marks.

 _“It’s not as complicated as you’re making it to be in your head.”_ Charlie mocked him. He was sure his voice wasn’t that high. _“You’re just trying to find something wrong with this place.”_ Vaughan’s voice wasn’t that high either. He stopped wiping her face and looked for the keyway of the cuffs.

| Stop it |  
| I’m sorry |  
 **| Are you alright? |**  
| ... |

“Are you alright?” Nate asked. “They inject you with anything?” He was already planning to kill the head doctor for whatever she injected him with, but if Charlie or Vaughan were injected with it too _and_ it turned out to be the zombie virus, he torture Dr. Nāgá first. Wasn’t she afraid of amputations? Maybe he’d chop her arm off, just below the string that kept the virus from flowing to the rest of her body. Then he’d untie the string and watch her turn.

“No. They didn’t.” Charlie said. She frowned down at the cuffs as Nate found the keyway.

“Good.” Nate replied. His voice lacked any hint of the dark place his mind had gone to. Charlie looked up. He met her gaze. She looked away, trying not to smile.

**(?) Charlie noticed your concern**

Nate opened the handcuffs. Charlie pulled her arms away from the pipe and rotated her wrists. Red indents left their mark on her skin. She grabbed the sink and tried to pull herself up. Nate took hold of her arms and help her the rest of the way.

“I was in that position for way too long.” Charlie groaned.

“What? You’re still not used to that?” Nate grinned suggestively.

“Shut up.” Charlie said. She stretched; shaking her arms, rotating her legs, cracking her back and neck. She patted the dirt off her clothes before looking back at the doctor. Ritika stood at the corner of the room, patiently waiting for Charlie finish so they could leave.

Charlie stormed toward the doctor and punched her in the face. Ritika stumbled back. Her foot got caught in a plastic bag and she tripped. There was a loud thud as her back hit the floor. 

“That’s for kidnapping Vaughan you cunt.” Charlie snarled. “It’s also a warning. If you even _breathe_ wrong, I will fucking _kill you.”_

“I’m not going to turn on you.” Ritika said, sitting herself up. She had the common sense to not sound offended by the attack and the lack of trust Charlie had in her, but her voice still held an indignant tone.

“You better fucking not.” Charlie retorted. Nate walked to her side. He handed her one of the guns and magazines. She took them, never letting her eyes leave the doctor. Ritika slowly rose to her feet.

 **| Let’s find Vaughan |**  
| You’re outnumbered |  
| Give her a break Charlie |  
| ... |

“Where did you say Vaughan was?” Nate asked Ritika.

“I didn’t say,” The doctor responded, “But he’s on the fourth floor. I’ll take you to the room.”

“Let’s go.” Charlie said. They left the janitor’s closet.

* * *

**/!\ Quietly sneak up the stairs to the forth floor**

The three of them ascended the stairs, Ritika leading, Nate and Charlie trailing after her. They carefully placed their weight on each step, making as little noise as possible. Nate and Charlie held their guns tightly in their hands. Whenever they passed a door, Nate heard people talking in loud, sometimes frantic tones. He listened to each conversation, trying to gage the proximity of the voices.

First floor.

“…ow many people this time?”

“Three I think.”

“Shit! How’d they find us!?”

“I bet it was that bitch in the basement.”

“I thought the zombies yesterday would’ve killed them all.”

“Maybe the van’s alarm didn’t attract a big enough hoard.”

“Big enough hoard? A ‘small’ hoard should’ve been enough to kill five peop…”

Nate and Charlie glanced at each other, identical expressions of disbelief and anger on their faces. Ritika’s head lowered in shame.

Second floor.

“…on’t understand why we didn’t take the visitors with us like we usually do. They would’ve added to our test subjects and we wouldn’t be dealing with this right now.”

“Dr. Nāgá has a new theory that sick people might be the key to curing the virus.”

“What? How?”

“I believe she thinks that one disease might be able to trump the virus. And if it’s a disease that we already have a cure for, then w…”

So Nate had been wrong. The doctors weren’t taking the sick ones because their chances were low. He thought he understood the logic in that theory, but what if the cure for the zombie virus was a disease they _couldn’t_ cure. Would a person have to choose between becoming a zombie or having polio, lupus, or AIDS for the rest of their life?

Nate frowned. AIDS didn’t cure the virus. Sissy’s mother was dead. What the hell was he going to tell the little girl?

Third floor.

Before the three of them passed the door, it swung open. They flinched backward. Nate and Charlie raised their guns. The door stayed open.

“Where are you going? Come back here.”

“I’m going to look for Ritika.”

“Why?”

“She’s been acting strange lately. I want to make sure she’s alright.”

“You think she’s going to quit on us?”

“…I think she needs some motivation. That’s all.”

“I understand, but we don’t have the time for that right now. We need your help to find the intruders. Let’s go.”

“…Fine.”

The door closed. Nate and Charlie lowered their guns, sighing in unison. The doctor said nothing. She faltered at the door for a moment before continuing up.

Forth floor.

Nate slowly opened the door. His head and gun poked out. He saw no one. Nate gestured to Charlie and Ritika as he left the stairwell. They followed him into the hall. The doctor pointed to a door three rooms away. The room Vaughan was in.

Nate and Charlie ran. He had enough time to wonder if they’d find a zombie instead of their friend before he throw open the door. The doctor inside jumped and spun around. It was Dr. Phanin. A large, bloody wad was stuffed into his injured ear. Cuffs were in his hand. He was standing beside the bed Vaughan laid in. Nate growled. This motherfucker _again?_ He was going to-

Charlie stampeded towards the doctor. He ran. Charlie tackled him. They went through the cloth bed divider and hit the ground. Dr. Phanin yelped in pain. Ritika came into the room in time to see Charlie on top of the other doctor, throwing punches at his head. Nate looked away from them and walked towards Vaughan.

Vaughan slept; his mouth opened slightly, face relaxed, head tilted to the side, blissfully unaware that his life was in danger. Or unaware that he was dying. Nate didn’t know if Vaughan had been infected. He looked no worse than he did the last time Nate saw him, but he could’ve recently been injected with the virus. Nate tightened his grip on the gun and clenched his fist. He wanted to save both of them. Not just Charlie or Vaughan. _Both of them._

Ritika picked up a chart at the end of the bed. She flipped through the pages. Nate watched her. 

“He was being prepped for injection,” Ritika told him. “But he’s clear.” Nate nearly let go of his gun. Vaughan was clear. Charlie was clear. The both of them were alright. For the first time that day, Nate felt something akin to peace. They still had to get out of the clinic, but he hadn’t fucked up and that felt great.

**(o) Wake Vaughan**

Nate shook Vaughan’s shoulder. The younger man groaned. He opened his eyes, blinking slowly at Nate. It took a moment for his tired brain and bad eyes to recognize the other man. When he did, a warm smile crept onto his face.

“Nate.” Vaughan beamed. “Hi.” He sat up, covering a yawn with the back of his hand. Nate knelt down.

“Hey man.” Nate’s voice swam with relief.

“I’d thought you’d be here soon.” Vaughan said. He rubbed his eyes and yawned again.

“Of course. I don’t drag my feet rescuing people.” Nate told him. Vaughan’s smile faded. When it came back, it was more puzzled than it had been before.

“Rescuing.” Vaughan repeated. “What do I need rescuing from? The treatment here hasn’t been that bad.”

“What?” Nate asked. “Vaughan... why do you think you’re here?” The younger man stopped smiling again. He looked between Nate and Ritika, bewildered by the question.

“...To get help.” Vaughan said slowly. “The doctors told the rest of us that it was too dangerous to stay at the camp and that we could stay here. They told us that a few of them would stay behind to wait for you guys so you could meet up with us.” Just when Nate thought he couldn’t hate these people any more, they’d pull another bullshit move and one up themselves. Nate glared at Ritika.

“You were lied you.” Ritika told Vaughan. She purposefully avoided Nate’s stare. “They… we brought you here to find a cure of the zombie virus.”

“...That’s not a bad thing.” Vaughan said. He looked lost.

“No.” Ritika stressed. “We’re using all of you as test subjects. Inject you with a vaccine, then the virus itself to see if the vaccine works. _We aren’t going to help you with your cancer._ I’m sorry.” Ritika looked in the direction of Charlie and the other doctor. Vaughan stared at Ritika. The light that had been in his eyes when he first woke up began to flicker. He pulled his legs up to his chest and lowered his head onto his knees.

 **| We’ll get these fuckers |**  
| We need to go |  
| You’ll be okay |  
| … |

“We’ll make those assholes pay for what they did.” Nate told him.

“Why do I keep doing this?” Vaughan murmured. Nate didn’t know what he meant by that. Was he talking about hope? Did he mean to say ‘why do I keep hoping’? He placed a hand on Vaughan’s shoulder and squeezed. Vaughan placed his own hand on top of Nate’s and looked at him. An apologetic air that Nate couldn’t understand surrounded Vaughan.

The sound of bones breaking came from where Charlie and Dr. Phanin were fighting. A few seconds later, Charlie walked towards the bed. Blood dripped down her spasming fingers. The blood wasn’t hers. She stared at Vaughan with an intensity that stayed in her eyes. The rest of her face lacked any emotion. Vaughan shrunk away from her; it was so subtle that Nate could only feel it through the hand on Vaughan’s shoulder.

“Ch-” The rest of her name went muffled in Vaughan’s mouth as Charlie kissed him. She pulled at his collar. The blood absorbed into his clothes. Ritika moved to Dr. Phanin’s side.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you.” Vaughan said through the brief moment their lips parted before Charlie kissed him again. She pulled away abruptly. 

“We need to get out of here.” Charlie told him. Vaughan nodded and stood out of bed. Ritika came back, looking as pale as her dark complexion would allow her. She absentmindedly wiped blood off the tips of her fingers.

“Are you helping the others?” Vaughan asked the doctor. Ritika blinked at him.

“I... I’m going to try.” Ritika said.

“Okay. I’ll help.” Vaughan said. Ritika blinked at him again. She hadn’t expected him to want to help her. Neither did Charlie.

“What?” Charlie gawked. “No!” Nate rolled his eyes. They just reunited and they’re _already_ fighting with each other. Unbelievable.

“Charlie, we can’t leave these people to die.” Vaughan said. The doctor nodded.

“The longer we stay here, the more likely _we’ll_ die!” Charlie argued.

| Saving everyone isn’t hard |  
| I’m not dying for strangers |  
 **| I’m torn |**  
| ... |

“On the one hand,” Nate said, rubbing the irritation on his neck. “This is dangerous as fuck. On the other hand, there are people in this building who need a good ass kicking for what they did.”

**(?) You gave a neutral answer**

“...I want to kick their asses too.” Charlie agreed.

“This is about saving people, not about getting revenge.” Ritika said. Nate and Charlie glared at her.

“She’s right.” Vaughan said. “We need to focus on the kidnapped.”

“Why not do both?” Nate suggested. “You two save the patients, we’ll beat the shit out of the doctors.”

Vaughan frowned. “I-”

“Quiet!” Ritika said. “Do you hear that?” Everyone listened. It was a series of footsteps, getting louder as they approached the room. Nate couldn’t gage how many people there were.

“Hide!” Ritika whispered. “I’ll cover for you.” She left the room without another word. Nate and Charlie pulled the cloth divider around the bed.

“If she brings the bastards in here _I swear to god_ I’m killing her first!” Charlie hissed.

| Quiet |  
 **| Me first |**  
| She’s on our side |  
| ... |

“Not if _I_ kill her first.” Nate said. Vaughan shushed the both of them. Charlie glared at him but quieted down. They heard Ritika’s voices echoing off the halls. Nate couldn’t make out what she was saying. It took him a moment to realize that she wasn’t speaking English. It was Hindi, at least that was the only language Nate knew Indian people spoke. A few voices responded back to the doctor, also in Hindi. They sounded cautious and skeptical of whatever Ritika was saying, or maybe it was Nate’s paranoia that made them sound like that.

“...Shouldn’t we go after her?” Vaughan whispered. Charlie and Nate stared at him with disbelief.

“Fucking why?” Charlie asked.

“She might... she might be in...” Vaughan frowned, confused at his sudden difficulty at speaking. “She might be in dange...” His eyes rolled upward. He collapsed to the ground, landing on his back. His body began moving violently. It was if an earthquake had ripped apart his bones and caused aftershocks in his muscles. His hands waved and his feet stomped erratically against the floor. His mouth moved rapidly as he panted and wheezed.

The danger they were in and the necessity of silence went forgotten by Nate. He quickly knelt to Vaughan’s side, grabbed onto his shoulders, and started panicking.

 _“Holy shit!”_ Nate screamed. _“What-”_

“He’s having another seizure!” Charlie’s voice was just as loud and panicked as his. “Help me turn him over!” Charlie knelt down and took hold of Vaughan’s shoulders.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

They both turned Vaughan to his side. It was like turning an active jackhammer.

“How do we make it stop!?” Nate demanded.

“We can’t!” Charlie told him. “We have to wait it out!”

 _“Fuck!”_ Nate growled. The doctors outside the room made startled noises. They began arguing with Ritika, who Nate distractedly assumed, was trying to stop them from entering the room. The arguing turned into a screaming match. Then a gun went off. Silence.

“Nate!” Charlie’s voice was hoarse. “Barricade the door. I’ll deal with Vaughan.”

**/!\ Barricade the door before the doctors come**

Nate let go of Vaughan’s juddering body and stood up. He snapped his head around the room and looked for things to barricade the door.

**(o)**

He lifted the mattress off the bed frame and ran to the door.

**(o)**

Letting go of the mattress, Nate slammed the door shut. Before it completely closed, he heard Ritika groan, or maybe she sobbed, before the gun went off again.

**(o)**

He picked the mattress up.

**(o)**

He slammed it against the door. Nate looked around the room again. There were boxes on the ground. He grabbed them and stacked them against the mattress.

**(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)**

As he was stacking the last box in place, the door jerked forward and went ajar.

“Whose in there!?” A deep voice demanded from the other side.

| It’s me |  
| A doctor |  
 **| Santa |**  
| ... |

“I’m Indian Santa Clause.” Nate shot back. “Ho ho ho motherfucker!” He raised his gun to the crack of the door and fired. The man with the deep voice made a wet gurgling noise. He hit the ground with a meaty thud.

“Enjoy your Christmas gift _you son of a bitch!”_ Nate sounded like a lunatic. He didn’t care. The door started jerking forward again.

“Nate! We need to get out of here _now!”_ Charlie ordered. Nate quickly scanned the area. There were no other doors except one on the far end of the room. It led into another room.

“There!” Nate said. “Hurry! I’ll pick up Vaughan.” Charlie hesitated before running to the other room. Nate rushed to Vaughan side. He was still trembling, though not as powerfully as before.

**(o) Pick up Vaughan**

Nate placed his arms under Vaughan’s legs and back.

“Don’t choke.” Nate said. He lifted Vaughan up. The strength in his entire body leaked out of his feet. Nate almost dropped him. He stumbled forward, using willpower to keep Vaughan in his arms. He regained his balanced and darted to the room, passing Dr. Phanin’s bloody and beaten body. Charlie slammed and locked the door behind him.

The room had no exit.

“Shit!” Nate swore. “I thought there was a way out from here!” The doctors burst through the barricade.

“Never mind that! Just block the door!” Charlie told him. Nate placed Vaughan on the ground, making sure to keep him on his side. Quickly standing back up caused the earth to jump and tilt. Nate nearly fell before helping Charlie barricade the door with more boxes.

**(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)**

The doctors slammed against the door. It did nothing but create a loud banging noise. Nate and Charlie sprinted to the side. They could see four silhouettes through the translucent glass on the door.

“Get the key.” A doctor’s muffled voice ordered. Nate and Charlie flinched.

“Don’t.” Another doctor said. “There’s no way out of that room except through this door. They’re not a threat was long as they’re trapped.” They were at the complete mercy of the doctors, who at any time could unlock the door, kick over the boxes, and shoot them dead. Nate screamed and smashed his hand against the glass. The doctors flinched away.

“K-keep two people posted here at all times.” A third voice said. Nate moved his hand away from the glass and shook the pain out of it. He looked down at Vaughan. The younger man was no longer moving.

* * *

 

Vaughan opened his eyes five minutes after they barricaded themselves in the room. Charlie, who used her lap as a pillow for his head, brought this to Nate’s attention. He rushed towards them. No matter how much they talked to him or shook him, Vaughan wouldn’t answer back. He kept staring at the ceiling, eyes void of any emotion. Occasionally his eyes would close only to open moments later, expression still blank.

Charlie combed her fingers through his hair, glaring at the barricaded door and the silhouetted doctors behind it. Nate sat in front of her, also looking at the door and silhouettes. His hand rested on Vaughan’s shoulder. He didn’t bother to move it after he gave up trying to snap him out of his stupor.

He wasn’t extremely worried about Vaughan not responding in the immediate future, he would carry him out of the Goddamn building if he had to, but he was concerned about the possibility of Vaughan being unresponsive _forever._ Nate didn’t know if seizures could make a person brain dead and he did not want to find out. Not through Vaughan.

The worst part about it was his eyes. They looked lost, but with an indifference to being lost. That wasn’t right, living people weren’t supposed to look like that. Nate tried not to stare at them, but his focus kept getting drawn away from the door and back to his friend’s vacant eyes.

Nate felt like crap. Whatever was running through his veins was doing a number on his body. He realized that, though he had seen people die and then turn into zombies, he never saw the gradual transformation from living to dead. He never saw a person’s skin go dark and sickly, the light fade from their eyes, their breathing stop, the stillness of their death, and the eventual reanimation. He had nothing to compare his symptoms to. What he was going through could be a sign of becoming a zombie, or just an allergic reaction. He didn’t know, and not knowing was worse than being infected.

Fifteen minutes after trapping themselves into the room, Vaughan let out a pained groan. His eyes regained the flickering light that had appeared ever since he was told he wasn’t going to get help from the lying doctors. Charlie and Nate looked down at him with equal expressions of surprise and relief.

“Vaughan!” Charlie said. “Are you alright?” The younger man rolled his head in her lap. He responded to her in Japanese. His voice was strained and he paused repeatedly. Charlie spoke back, also in Japanese.

“What did he say?” Nate asked.

“He asked where he was. He’s a bit out of it.” Charlie told him. Vaughan said something else and she replied. Nate guessed by the growing look of concern on Vaughan’s face that she was telling him the current situation they were in. Charlie placed a hand under his head and shoulder.

“Help me sit him up.” She told Nate. He grabbed onto Vaughan’s arms. They both slowly lifted him off her lap and leaned him against the wall. Charlie patted down his hair before standing up.

“Once Vaughan gets better, we’ll try to figure out what to do.” Charlie said. She walked to the side of door, edging as close to the barricade as she could.

**(o) Look at Vaughan**

His body was ragdoll-like in limpness. It was as if the seizure had melted his bones away. Nate realized that despite gaining consciousness, he still might have to carry him out of the clinic. His mind again went to the possibility of Vaughan’s condition being permanent. Nate tried to dismiss the thought. Vaughan woke up and he was responsive now. Even if he didn’t get better right away, he _would_ eventually get better.

Nate frowned with concern. Vaughan looked back at him. His gaze went in and out of focus, his eyes sometimes closing for a few seconds before fluttering open again. It was an improvement to the blank stare, but still very concerning. Vaughan tried to smile but it faltered in the weight of exhaustion and pain that clearly shown on his face.

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

Vaughan groaned in Japanese.

“Speak English.” Nate said.

“Head hurts... _Ow.”_ Vaughan moaned. He tried to raise his hand to forehead but it dropped before it reached halfway.

“That’s because you had another seizure.” Nate told him.

“I did?” Vaughan asked. He opened his eyes and looked warily at Nate when he nodded. “Never... I...”

“What?” Nate asked.

“I never... wanted you or Charlie... to die because of me...” Vaughan’s voice was filled with weak but earnest remorse.

| Stop talking |  
| That’s what we do |  
 **| We’re not going to die |**  
| ... |

“We’re not going to die.” Nate stated firmly.

“But we’re trapped.” Vaughan said. “...Wait...” He looked up at the wall behind Nate’s head. He stared at it as intently as his weak body would allow. His eyes began to lose focus. Nate cupped Vaughan’s chin. He gently turned his head until Vaughan looked at him again.

“There’s a vent... over there.” Vaughan breathed. “You and Charlie can... crawl up there and... get away.” Nate looked at the wall. The vent cover was off its hinges.

 **| What about you? |**  
| That’s an idea |  
| We’re not leaving you |  
| ... |

“How are we supposed to drag you through the vents?” Nate asked, turning back to Vaughan. The younger man smiled apologetically. 

“You’re not.” Vaughan said softly. Nate’s eyes narrowed. Like hell he was going to leave him here. The words were about to leave his mouth when Vaughan’s eyes fluttered close. His head drooped against Nate’s hand and his labored breathing intensified.

 _“Vaughan.”_ Nate said. No response. Nate stared at him for a moment longer, waiting for Vaughan to wake up again. He didn’t. Nate sighed and let go of his chin. As he stood up, he caught sight of Charlie staring at him. _We’re not leaving him,_ her eyes said. She turned back to the door.

**(o) Talk to Charlie**

“Hey.” Nate said, reaching her. She turned back around and leaned against the wall.

“Hey.” She said.

 **| Are you okay? |**  
| About Ritika... |  
| Dr. Nāgá is a whore |  
| Exit |

“You okay?” Nate asked. Charlie paused before nodding.

**(?) Charlie noticed your concern**

“I’m fine.” She told him. “Physically anyways. But mentally... If I were given infinite amount of time to explain how infuriated I am right now, it wouldn’t be enough. I want to murder every one of them. _Real_ doctors are supposed to _help people.”_ At the last sentence Nate thought he heard a small amount of hurt in her voice, but looking at her face he could only see rage.

 **| I feel the same |**  
| Vaughan’s too sick for that |  
| Anger won’t help anything |  
| ... |

“I want to kill them too.” He said. He glared at the silhouettes behind the door. The shadows seemed unaffected by their anger.

“But we can’t now that Vaughan’s gone through another seizure.” Charlie said. “We have to focus on getting out of here as fast as we can. But if any of them get in my way...” She balled her hands into fists.

 **| About Ritika... |**  
| Dr. Nāgá is a whore |  
| Exit |

“They shot one of their own.” Nate stated.

“Of course they did.” Charlie said. “They’re motherfucking assholes. Not like the bitch didn’t deserve it.”

| She didn’t deserve it |  
| Serves her right |  
 **| She was helping us |**  
| ... |

“She did make things easier for us.” Nate said.

“True,” Charlie agreed. “But do you think she could’ve helped us out of _this?”_ She gestured around them.

“Maybe?” Nate said with a shrug. “Probably not.” Nate looked at the silhouettes again. They didn’t react to the talk of their fallen colleague. He realized that they couldn’t hear them.

 **| Dr. Nāgá is a whore |**  
| Exit |

He couldn’t hurt them- and he wanted to hurt them _so badly-_ but he could irritate the hell out of them.

“Dr. Nāgá must suck a lot of dick to have so many people working with her.” Nate’s voice was purposefully loud. Charlie squinted at him. She followed his gaze to the door. They both noticed the doctors outside shifting awkwardly. Charlie smiled.

“She probably has a bucket.” She replied, her voice as loud as his.

“A bucket?” Nate asked.

“She’s fucked so many guys her cunt all loose and flabby like silly putty between her legs.” Charlie explained. “She could fit a whole baseball up there I bet.” The doctors shifted again. Nate laughed. Bucket was an _amazing_ term, why hadn’t he heard it before?

“Only a baseball?” Nate mused. “I’m sure she’s looser than that. I bet she could fit a football up there.”

“Or a bowling ball.” Charlie said.

“Are bowling balls bigger than footballs?”

“I can’t remember. She could fit a tennis racket.”

“Or an electric guitar.”

“Or an elephant’s dick.”

“Cthulhu could fuck her and wouldn’t feel a thing because her silly putty twat is so Goddamn loose.”

“Shut the fuck up in there!” One of the doctors hollered suddenly. They saw the shadow of the doctor raise a gun to the glass. “I will shoot you through the motherfucking door if you don’t shut your mouths!”

**(?) The doctors think you’re an asshole**

Nate bent over, grabbing his legs as he guffawed. Charlie wrapped her arms around her stomach and let out loud cackles. The doctor hammered his gun against the door. He demanded they stop laughing. They ignored him, more due to their inability to stop than stubbornness.

Nate almost managed to calm down until he looked at Vaughan. The unconscious man’s face was bright red. He must have woken up, listened to their banter, then passed out again while his face turned into a cherry. Nate went into another bout of laughter. Charlie, also seeing what happened to her boyfriend, laughed with him.

Their laughter died down naturally, though it felt far too soon for Nate. But they were still in danger, the people outside still wanted to kill them, and they still didn’t know how to get out of the room. They couldn’t relax for long until they were somewhere safe.

**| Exit |**

“I’m going to look around.” Nate told her. Charlie nodded.

“Tell me if you see any way for _all_ of us to get out.” She paused. “If we have no other choice, we can always try to push past the doctors. We’ll probably die but it’s better than rotting here.”

“...Only as a last resort.” Nate said. He didn’t want any of them to die, but going out in a hail of gunfire was better than starving in the stupid room.

“Of course.” Charlie agreed. “I don’t want us to die. But I _refuse_ to be trapped like an animal.”

Nate nodded. They turned away from each other. He looked around the room. There was no means of escape that he could see.

Except for the vent.

**(o) Look at vent**

It was too small. It wasn’t that Nate couldn’t force himself through; he would just get stuck after he pulled himself in.

“I won’t fit. Charlie might be able to squeeze through, but I’m not even sure of that.” Nate murmured to himself. He wasn’t disappointed. He never intended on leaving without Vaughan, so-

A noise was coming from the vent. Nate squinted, listening intently. It sounded like... _crawling._

“Charlie, I think someone’s in the vents.” Nate alerted, moving his head away. Charlie spun around, eyes wide. They both thought the same thing: The doctors were moving through the vents to get at them. Charlie ran to his side.

“When you see the fucker, shoot them.” Charlie ordered. She pressed herself against the wall beside the vent. Nate and Charlie raised their guns in unison; she lifting hers to her shoulder, he aiming his into the vent. They waited. The patter of hands and knees connecting with metal grew louder. Nate shifted the weapon in his hands. The head on the intruder came into view. The head turned and looked at Nate. More of their body came to view as the intruder turned the corner and crawled towards him.

Nate lowered his gun, mouth agape.

 _“Jude!?”_ Nate exclaimed. Charlie flinched slightly. Drawled laughter wafted through the vents. The pothead crawl-waddled towards him, grinning like a moron.

 _“Hi dude!”_ Jude greeted, metallic voice echoing off the walls. Nate shushed him. “Hi dude.” He repeated in a quieter voice. Nate never gave Jude and Raymond much thought after he separated from them. Seeing the pothead made him realize that he never expected to see the both of them again. But here Jude was, nearly falling on his ass pulling himself out of the vent. Nate grabbed onto his arms and kept him from hitting the ground.

Charlie relaxed, though she still regarded the man with some suspicion.

| Where are the others? |  
 **| Why were you in the vents? |**  
| Hi Jude |  
| ... |

“What the fuck were you doing in the vents?” Nate asked.

“I was the air dude.” Jude chimed. “I was channeling the power of the wind and breezing through, yah.” He wiggled his arms in the air, demonstrating how he moved through the vents. Charlie shot Nate an incredulous look.

“...Okay,” Nate said. “But _why_ were you doing that?” The pothead looked up at the ceiling. He made a dumb _‘uhhh’_ sound as he thought. Charlie rolled her eyes.

“Oh yeah!” Jude grinned as the light bulb powered by weed turned on in his head. “We found the other sick people but the doors were locked. Ray-man saw a vent and told me to climb through and open each of the rooms. We can make a distraction for all of you after I get the sick dudes.” Nate grinned. They had a way out of the room now. Fucking awesome.

| Be quick |  
 **| Will you remember? |**  
| We should meet up afterwards |  
| ... |

“Will you _remember_ to make a distraction?” Nate asked.

“Yeah dude.” Jude said. “Chillax, it’s all good. Fucking eye of the tiger and shit.”

“We’re going to die in this room.” Charlie deadpanned.

“Later dudes.” Jude said. He nearly kicked Nate in the face as he pulled himself back through the vent. They listened to the metallic patter fade away.

Nate had to play the waiting game, not only for Jude and Raymond to help them out, but to see if he would turn. Nate rubbed his neck, hands once again brushing against the injected area. It burned whenever he touched it but he couldn’t seem to stop. Charlie walked up to him and grabbed his wrist.

“Is something wrong with your neck?” Charlie asked. “You keep rubbing it.” She pulled his hand away before he could protest. She squinted at the injected area.

“What happened?” Charlie asked.

| I don’t know |  
| Bug bite |  
 **| Syringe |**  
| ... |

He answered without thinking.

“It was a syrin...” Nate paused. “Shit.” He needed to keep that to himself, at least until he knew for sure that he was going to turn. He didn’t need Charlie freaking out on him. He hoped she would let his comment go.

**(?) You told Charlie the truth**

But of course she didn’t.

“What? Syringe? Were...” Charlie paused. “Were you injected with the zombie virus?”

“...Maybe.” Nate admitted. Charlie punched him in the face. He stumbled backward. Regaining balance, he brought a hand to his cheek and flinched at the pain. He’d been hit harder in the past, but the attack caught him off guard.

“What the _fuck!?”_ Nate cried.

“Who did it!?” Charlie demanded. “Who injected you!? When did this happen!?” She circled around him, her furrowed eyes never leaving his, until she positioned herself between Nate and Vaughan.

“It was the head doctor bitch.” Nate told her. “And I don’t fucking know how long ago that was! I passed out after it happened.” Charlie’s eyes darted from the irritation on his neck to his eyes.

| You need me right now |  
 **| We don’t have time to deal with this |**  
| Are you going to kill me? |  
| ... |

“We don’t have time to deal with this right now.” Nate spoke as calmly as he could. “After we leave, we’ll figure out what to do or if I’m even sick at all. Okay?”

“Assuming we get out of this room. I don’t think that pothead moron is going to do anything.” Charlie snapped. “I might be stuck in a room with a zombie.”

| Boo fucking hoo |  
| I’m not a zombie yet |  
 **| You don’t know I’m infected |**  
| ... |

“You don’t know that I’m infected.” Nate said.

“I don’t know that you _aren’t_ either.” Charlie argued. “This is _bullshit!_ ”

 **| Everything will be fine |**  
| Don’t do anything stupid |  
| We’ll deal with this later |  
| ... |

“Charlie, everything will be fi-” His words were cut off as Charlie rammed her arms into his chest. Nate yelped in surprised. He stumbled backwards, his legs tripping over each other. His back hit the wall with a deep thud. Before Nate could defend himself against another attack, Charlie rushed at him. The back of his head bounced off the wall as she pinned him to it. He made a move to push her off but froze when he felt barrel of a gun press against his lower jaw. He instinctively raised his head. The gun rose with it.

Nate looked down at her. He only moved his eyes to do this, not wanting to antagonize her any farther. Her head was lowered, her forehead inches away from Nate’s chest.

“Go die. The both of you can die for all I care.” Charlie’s voice was low. Each word was stressed against the emotions that tried to rip through her throat like gravel. “You think I give a shit if you two leave me alone? I can take care of myself. I don’t need anyone. I never loved any of you. All the two of you have ever done was hold me back. Fucking die. I don’t give a shit.” Nate heard the safety unlock. He felt the lukewarm gun shake against his skin.

| Put the gun down |  
| It sounds like you care to me |  
 **| You’re not doing it right |**  
| ... |

“Charlie,” Nate spoke softly. “If you’re going to kill me, you have to pull the trigger.” A pained hiss came from the woman. The gun continued to shake.

**(o)**

Nate slowly moved his hand upward. He wrapped his fingers around Charlie’s wrist. She flinched, the gun pressed deeper into his jaw. She didn’t fire. Nate slowly moved the gun away from him. Charlie let him move her arm half way to her side before wrenching from his hold.

She turned from him, stiff as stone, and trotted away. She moved like she was trying to keep composure while struggling through cold and rapid tides. Charlie stopped in the corner of the room, to the right of the door. Her shoulders were raised. Her hands trembled, the one holding the gun more so than the one not.

Nate stared at her back, wide-eyed. Was Charlie _crying?_ That was impossible. The balls-of-steal, take-no-shit girl he used to date _never_ cried. Nate moved towards her, footsteps slow, drawn almost hypnotically by the odd sight. Charlie’s back tensed as he closed the distance between them. He stopped an arm’s length away from her. Charlie turned her head in his direction but stopped before he could see her eyes.

“Charlie...” Nate tried to make his voice strong, to command her to look at him by just saying her name. It came out hesitant and low instead. Charlie didn’t respond. Nate rubbed the irritation of his neck.

| Calm down |  
| Are you crying? |  
 **| I should’ve been careful |**  
| ... |

“I should’ve been more careful.” Nate said. “I-”

“You bastard.” Charlie’s voice shook. “I hate you.” Nate stared at her again. She looked like she was trying to simultaneously curl into herself and straighten up. Nate frowned. He knew Charlie needed to be comforted, but he didn’t know how. She was ice. If he hugged her, she wouldn’t melt into it. She would freeze him solid.

**| Comfort |**

Except... that wasn’t true, was it? Charlie was cold but she wasn’t heartless. He had seen her sad before if not to this extent, and she did care for both him and Vaughan in her own way. Even if he was right and the apocalypse didn’t faze her, that didn’t mean she was unbreakable. Maybe to Charlie, losing them was far worse than the world ending. She was human. Nate didn’t know when he had forgotten that.

Nate moved forward until they were inches apart. He bent over, wrapping one arm around just below her bosom and the other just above. He rested his cheek against the side of her head. Charlie would probably hit him, but it wouldn’t be the first time and he could take the abuse.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, closing his eyes. “I’m sorry.” 

**(?) You tried to comfort Charlie**

Charlie cried. Her entire body quaked as wet gasps and distressed groans spasmed out of her. The noise, failing to be suppressed by her clenched teeth, sounded foreign and wrong coming from her. Nate grimaced. He never wanted to know that Charlie was capable breaking. He hadn’t like the idea of her being stronger than him, it hurt his pride in a way that he would never admit; but seeing that she could be weaker was much worse. It hurt the part of him that used to love her.

Nate tightened his grip, pulling her closer to him. Charlie continued to cry. All he could do was wait for her to stop.

* * *

 

Voices speaking in rushed, frantic Hindi came through the door. The silhouettes faded then disappeared. Nate and Charlie looked at each other. The tears had irritated the whites of her eyes into a filmy red. Her irises sat in the redness, twin violets wadding in twin pools of milky blood.

“The pothead came through after all.” Charlie said. “Let’s go.” His hand slipped from her waist as she stood up. She walked to the door and began moving the boxes away, making as little noise as possible while placing them to the side. Nate joined her. Doing nothing in the room allowed him to recuperate from whatever had been injected in him. His head still spun and his body felt off, but he was far more prepared for the physical challenges that would come with escaping the clinic.

**(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)**

Placing the last box away from the door, Nate went up to Vaughan. The younger man was awake again.

“Can you move?” Nate asked, kneeling down.

“...Move?” Vaughan said. “Where are we... moving to?” Nate frowned. Invisible stones still weighted down Vaughan’s body. His face was heavy with exhaustion and his eyes kept losing focus. Even if he could walk on his own, his weak body and wooly mind would make it impossible for him to move as fast as they needed him to.

“Never mind.” Nate told him. Still kneeling, he turned his back to Vaughan. “C’mon. Piggyback time.” Lacking his full strength would make it hard for Nate to carry him, but he was determined to get Vaughan out of there even if he had to drag him on the floor.

“Pigs?” Vaughan repeated. He wrapped his arms around Nate’s shoulders. Nate grabbed onto Vaughan’s legs and stood. Any recovery he made by resting in the room disappeared. The gravity around him increased, especially at his back. His legs bucked but he kept standing.

Charlie regarded both Nate and Vaughan as he walked to the door. Her eyes moved from their faces, to the hunch of Nate’s body as he struggled to hold Vaughan, and to the gun in Nate’s pocket.

“You’re not going to be able to shoot like that.” Charlie said. She reached for his gun and ammo. Nate raised Vaughan’s leg, making way for her hands. Taking what she needed, she reloaded the guns. Nate couldn’t help but notice how badass Charlie looked. Scratched face, intense eyes, ragged clothes, wielding two handguns; somewhere in the world a movie poster had a giant hole where an action hero should have been, and the missing piece was standing right in front of him.

The impression broke when Charlie rested her forehead on his shoulder. She let out a shaky sigh. She was still shaken by the anvil of bad news Nate had dropped on her head. The possibility of losing them both- Vaughan through the damage done by his seizure or cancer, and Nate through whatever he was injected with- was still hard on Charlie. Her boyfriend and her... What was he to Charlie? Nate didn’t know. But there would be time to find out. He would make sure of that. He nuzzled the side of her head. Charlie sighed again.

“Stay on my ass.” Her voice held the weight of an order despite its softness.

| Maybe you should carry Vaughan |  
| Be careful |  
 **| I will |**  
| ... |

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Nate said. There was a hint of perversion in his voice. Charlie flicked his forehead. It didn’t hurt.

Charlie pulled away from him and turned to the door. She grasped the lock.

“On the count of three.” She whispered.

“One.” This was it.

“Two.” They were going to survive together or die together.

 _“Three.”_ As it should be.

Charlie unlocked the door and pulled it open. Two doctors, presumably the ones who had been guarding the door, turned towards them.  Seconds of shock were allowed to them before Charlie shot them both. Nate and Charlie jogged towards the exit. They paused just before leaving the room. Charlie stuck her head out the door. She pulled her head back in and looked at Nate.

“Remember, stay behind me.” Charlie said. Nate nodded. The ache in his body throbbed in protest.

**/!\ Follow Charlie**

Galloping out of the room, they made it half way to the stairwell when another doctor burst through a door. Charlie dodged right, Nate following seconds before bullets flew past where they had been.

“You bastards!” The man hollered. “You’re the reason Ritika’s dead!” Charlie raised her guns and shot the man in the abdomen. The doctor collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach and screaming in pain. Charlie shot him in the head as they made their way to the stairs.

Another doctor stood directly behind the door of the stairwell. The doctor flinched away from them. She held the rifle awkwardly, hands displaying an inexperience and displeasure with wielding a weapon. She opened her mouth, lips trembling, but was shot in the throat before she could say anything. The attack threw the doctor against the wall. She slid down, choking and clawing at her neck. Charlie and Nate speed past the gurgling doctor.

Third floor.

The door to the third floor stairway began to open. Charlie kicked it closed. They heard the sound of meat being impaled followed by shrieking. They continued down the stairs.

Second floor.

Two men were waiting for them.

“Go back!” Charlie ordered Nate. They rushed out of the line of fire. The two men walked after them, footsteps slow and cautious. Charlie crouched, Nate copied her. The two doctors turned the corner and aimed their weapons straight ahead. They realized too late that their targets were lower to the ground. Charlie shot them both in the stomach. Charlie and Nate stepped on and over the fallen doctors. One of the men started crying, their sniveling became less audible the farther the three of them distance themselves from him.

First floor.

After checking the safety of the first floor halls, Charlie ushered Nate through the door. He staggered, stopped, and panted harshly. His heart was beating too fast, threatening to rip in half and burst through his spine, ribcage, back, and chest. The dizziness in his mind intensified and spread through his body until his bones and muscles turned and twisted in impossible static angles. Vaughan was heavy, too heavy, and Nate decided that Vaughan was no longer on his back. Instead, a human shaped sack of cement latched itself onto him and Vaughan lying somewhere in the halls with the dead and dying doctors. The fact that the sack groaned and breathed did not fool him.

His sorry state was evident; Nate was too tired to hide it. Pinch-faced, Charlie stood in front of him, taking his weary form in.

 _“Come on_ Nate.” Charlie said. Not a plea, though it might have been related to one. “We’re almost there, just keep moving.”

| Let’s take a break |  
 **| Let’s go |**  
| Leave me |  
| ... |

“Yup, Let’s... let’s go. I can fucking...” Nate paused to breathe. “Totally, yeah.”

“Good.” Charlie said. Her voice dropped. “I’m _not_ losing both of you in the same Goddamn day.”

 **| Of course not |**  
| We can leave Vaughan |  
| You might though |  
| ... |

The possibility of Charlie losing the both of them was high. They were weak and couldn’t move out of danger as quickly as she could. But if he left Vaughan behind and took a moment to rest, he could recuperate just enough to follow Charlie out of the clinic without holding her back. But Nate wasn’t going to do that, and Charlie would never allow it, so there was no point in bringing it up.

“You’re not going to lose shit because we’re going to be fucking... fucking fine.” Nate said. She looked him up and down again, and then looked at Vaughan. She swallowed hard on nothing and turned her back to them.

“We’re almost there,” Charlie repeated. “Just keep moving.” She walked forward. Nate followed her.

**(o) Talk to Vaughan**

It occurred to Nate that Vaughan was being very quiet. He didn’t flinch at the gunfire, he didn’t groan for the people Charlie killed, he wasn’t reacting to anything at all.

“How’re you doing back here?” Nate asked. Vaughan said nothing. He was so heavy. Nate suddenly wondered if Vaughan weighed so much to him because the injection made him weak, or because he was carrying dead weight.

“C’mon.” Nate said. “Talk to me man.” No, Vaughan wasn’t dead. He could still hear his raspy breathing. Maybe the seizure damaged him more than Nate thought. He shifted Vaughan’s body upward.

“...I think I’m going to throw up on you.” Vaughan moaned.

“No, _no,_ don’t puke on me.” Nate protested. Good, he was still conscious.

“I’m sorry.” Vaughan said.

“Just try to keep it in okay?” Nate said. He felt Vaughan nod. “Don’t worry. When we get out of here, you can puke as much as you like.” Vaughan groaned in Japanese.

* * *

 

Quiet. No foreign languages spoken in urgent tones, no weapons muffled in through walls, no foot falls but their own. This was a mixed blessing. Running was no longer necessary since no doctors were around. However, the expectation of danger around every corner tensed their nerves. Where did everyone go?

They had yet to find an exit. Neither Charlie nor Nate wanted to risk going into any of the room and breaking through a window out of fear that the room they chose would contain a group of armed doctors, or that they sound of glass breaking would alert the doctors to them before they could get away.

Nate was exhausted. He wanted to take a break, but they were so close to getting out of the shithouse of a clinic. He kept telling himself to walk a bit more, to continue moving his legs and carrying Vaughan until they were free from harm. Just a few more steps.

Just a few more.

“You’re still alive.”

Nate and Charlie stopped walked. They slowly turned towards the direction of the voice. It came from the lobby of the clinic, a means of escape they almost walked past. There was a group of people standing there, the majority of which were doctors. The one standing in front of them, the one the voice belonged to, was Dr. Nāgá.

“Motherfucker.” Nate hissed. Charlie snarled. If the head doctor had been alone, he would have _loved_ to see her again; to wreck her face, smash the shit out of her undead arm, and watch her turn into a zombie freak. However, she wasn’t alone and they were in serious danger.

“Nate!” Raymond called out. The bandage on his nose was gone. Blood flowed freely from his nostrils. A large bump protruded from his forehead. His clothes were torn and messy. An arm was wrapped protectively around a girl who looked like a younger version of Roxane.

“Dude! Dude, _save us!”_ Jude shouted. His right eye was a purple-blue and swollen. A small bald spot lay on the side of his head, short strains of hair stuck to the red scalp. His clothes were also ruined.

Of the crowd of people, the ones behind Raymond, his daughter, and Jude appeared to be the kidnapped patients. They looked tired, scared, and deeply confused.

“Quiet!” Dr. Nāgá said. Raymond and Jude glowered at her. She turned her attention to Nate and Charlie. “You’re both very resilient... Though the vaccine doesn’t seem to be agreeing with you Nate.” Vaccine. It was a vaccine. He wasn’t infected. For a brief moment, he was overcome with pure relief. Then reality caught up with him. He would have no reason to be relieved if he weren’t injected in the first place. He could still die from the allergic reaction to the vaccine. All three of them were still in danger.

And Dr. Nāgá was to blame.

**| Go away |**  
| Let us leave |

| I’m going to murder you |  
| ... |

“Fuck _off_ you shit eating _bitch!”_ Nate screamed.

“I do not particularly want to see you either. Besides, this is _my_ facility. _You_ should be the one _fucking off.”_ The head doctor said.

“I’m going to kill her.” Charlie’s voice was low and acidic. “I’m going to kill her. I’m going to kill her. I-”

“You two have murdered my colleagues and tried to ruin our chance at saving the human race.” Dr. Nāgá said. “As much as I would like retribution for your actions, I am not willing to sustain any more damage to my cause. Therefore, I have decided to let you three go.” Nate and Charlie glanced at each other, equally insulted. She was so full of herself, thinking they were that stupid.

“All we need to do is walk past you where you’ll have a good shot at us?” Charlie didn’t try to mask her sarcasm.

“There is a door to your left.” Dr. Nāgá said. “You can leave through there.” They looked. Farther down the hall was a side door leading to an alleyway. It was a trap, it had to be. Someone would be waiting outside, ready to shoot whoever came out that door.

“...I’m going to check to see if it’s safe.” Charlie told Nate. “If I don’t come back, leave another way.” She jogged off. He stared after her, stunned. He asked himself why she would leave when she knew she would be ambushed, but he already knew the answer. It was in case it _wasn’t_ an ambush. They couldn’t run away with being gunned down and they couldn’t fight back without being overpowered, but if they were _allowed_ to go they would leave with their lives.

Nate was too tired. He needed to rest. He lowered Vaughan off his back. Vaughan’s movement was that of a person trying to walk on a rocking boat. He grabbed onto Nate’s arm and held onto the back of his denim jacket. He rested his head on Nate’s shoulder and exhaled deeply. As drained as Nate was, Vaughan was fairing much worse. Charlie could escape on her own if she needed to. Vaughan couldn’t. Nate needed to get him out of the clinic before he could get proper rest.

He glared at Dr. Nāgá and the middle aged woman returned his stare.

**| She better come back |**  
| Is everything alright Raymond? |  
| What are you going to do to them? |  
| ... |

“Charlie better be coming back.” Nate warned.

“She will.” Dr. Nāgá said. Vaughan turned his head until it faced the crowd of people. He made a confused noise before speaking.

“What’s... going on?” Vaughan asked.

“The doctors are keeping the patients hostage.” Nate explained. “The people I came with are there too.”

“We’re going... to save them... right?” Vaughan said. Nate blinked at him. Vaughan had cancer, hope of curing that cancer was ripped away from him, he suffered through a second seizure in less than forty-eight hours, and now he was in extreme discomfort. Yet his main concern was the well being of other people; not going somewhere safe or recovering or finding another doctor. Nate didn’t know how Vaughan was so selfless after everything he’d been through, and he didn’t know how such a good person could stand to be friends with a piece of shit like him.

The side door opened. Charlie jogged back to Nate’s side.

“It looks safe.” She said. “I think we can actually go.”

“You can’t leave us here! We-” The bat colliding with the side of his head cut off Raymond’s words.

“I told you to be quiet.” Dr. Nāgá spoke with barely restrained anger.

“You’re a fucking monster!” Raymond thundered. The head doctor paused. She lowered the bat to her side. When she spoke again, she spoke as a soldier reprimanding cowardly subordinates, looking back and forth between the captured, Nate, and his friends.

“I have committed terrible actions in my time since the outbreak, but I have done so for the betterment of others. What about you? Can you say that anything you have done in the last forty-one days has benefited anyone but yourselves and the one you deem worthy of your protection? Anyone you have ever stole from or lied to or killed, has it help people as a whole? _Well?”_ She waited for a response. No one spoke.

“You should be willing to die for the future of the human race.” She said, fire in her eyes. “ _You_ people are the real monsters.” Nate could not believe the gall Dr. Nāgá had. The lying, kidnapping, murderous bitch was trying to guilt trip them.

Vaughan moved his head away from Nate’s shoulder. He tried to step away from him and almost fell to the ground. Nate caught him.

“Vaughan,” Nate said. “What are you-”

“We’re not monsters.” Vaughan spoke directly at the head doctor. “We weren’t prepared for this. If we were… we would’ve done things differently. But we weren’t, so we’re just… trying to survive the best we can. That’s why we do awful things sometimes… not because we don’t care. We just want to live and… we want to protect the only people we have left. We do bad things but... it’s not our fault. None of this was supposed to happen.”

As the last sentence left Vaughan’s mouth, Nate saw the flickering light in Vaughan’s eyes fade, like the younger man had reached a horrifying epiphany.  His words rang true in ways that none of them wanted to acknowledge. A terrible event had wrecked the world. Opportunities that should have come to be, memories that should have been made, would never happen the way they were supposed to. They all irreversibly cheated out of the happy lives they were going to have.

_“None of this was supposed to happen.”_ Vaughan repeated, grief manifesting itself in every word. He clasped a hand to his mouth and closed his eyes.

“We have to go.” Charlie told Nate. “Vaughan needs a safe place to rest and there’s no reason why we should risk our lives for these people.” Vaughan shook his head, whimpering in Japanese.

Either they all die, or the three of them would get to live. That’s what his choices really were. He should pick up Vaughan and follow Charlie out of the clinic. He barely knew Raymond and Jude, he didn’t know the other patients at all, and he would be damned if he let the doctors kill them now. His friends were his priority, not some strangers he barely knew.

“You can’t do this to us!” Raymond screamed.

“Do something man!” Jude cried.

| Save hostages |  
 **| Leave |**

“You listen to me you cock-sucking whore.” Nate voice was low but it travelled all the way to the head doctor. “If I _ever_ see you again, I will torture you to death. And the first thing I’ll do is _cut off your fucking arms.”_ Dr. Nāgá nodded without comment. Nate thought he saw her shiver.

“C’mon. Let’s get out of there.” Nate said.

**(?) You decided to leave**

Vaughan whined in protest, but he was too weak to fight back and he knew it. He let himself be carried again without struggle. Charlie led the way to the side door.

“What are you doing dude!?”

“Come back!”

“Don’t leave us here!”

“You fucking cowards! You’re killing us!”

“Stop!”

“Nate!”

_“Nate!”_

They continued to yell and beg. Charlie let out an annoyed huff. Vaughan gasped and moaned, holding back tears. Nate was on the verge of collapsing and he was worried that he wouldn’t make it to the truck, but he felt nothing for the people he was leaving behind. He got the ones he came there for. That was all that mattered. They were safe. He was safe.

And everyone was going to live.


	6. Walk Among Cobras (Part 2)

It was stupid for Nate to feel so secure. In the past, after surviving some harrowing danger, a person could go to a police station or the safety of their home. Now that the world had gone to hell, nowhere was truly safer than anywhere else. All three of them could easily die here- wherever _here_ was- as they could have at the clinic.

But they had been outgunned, outnumbered, and handicapped; yet managed to kick ass and make it out alive. If that wasn’t celebratory material he didn’t know what was. Nate was going to make sure they rewarded themselves. Whether they got drunk out of their minds or burned shit down or boned, they were going to enjoy themselves. They deserved it.

Celebration would have to wait until the morning however. After everything that happened, Charlie and Vaughan wouldn’t have the energy or frame of mind to do much. Nate didn’t feel like doing anything himself and he could go back to sleep despite just waking up.

Nate glanced at his friends. Charlie’s head rested on his left shoulder, her arms folded loosely in her lap. Her chest raised and fell with her barely audible breathing. Vaughan’s position mirrored his girlfriend’s on the other side of Nate. His breathing sounded shaky, due to trouble taking in air or a result of suffering through a bad dream. Nate’s arms were draped across both their shoulders.

This was odd. Usually he was on one side or the other, not sandwiched between them. He couldn’t remember driving to this place, but he must have so he should be on the driver’s side. His slight bemusement quickly passed and he decided that he didn’t care. It was... nice, sitting like this. He shifted, drawing them closer to him.

“It’s about time you woke up.” Charlie’s voice was thick with sleep. She stretched, momentarily pulling away from Nate, before gently leaning back into him.

| Hey |  
| Weren’t you asleep too? |  
**| Where are we? |**  
| ... |

“Where are we?” Nate asked. Dense fog permeated the night. Trees, grass, and bush were all he could see, and the fog obstructed even those.

“I have no idea. I was trying to get as far away from the clinic as possible, I didn’t have a destination in mind.” Charlie told him.

“You drove?” Nate asked.

“When we got to the truck, you pushed yourself and Vaughan inside and passed out. So I had to take over.”

“Was I asleep the whole time?”

“No. You did wake up at one point to take a leak or something, and when you came back you were adamant about being in between the two of us.” Charlie told him, gesturing between herself and Vaughan. “You said you wanted to make sure we were still here when you woke up. I asked you where we were going to go, you said something about sheep and passed out again.” She tilted her head upwards and looked at him. “Feeling better?”

 **| Much better |**  
| I’m tired |  
| I can go for another injection |  
| … |

“Much better.” Nate said, nodding. The dizziness and pain had vanished, drowsiness came from just waking up instead of having the energy sapped out of him, and he felt like most of his strength had come back.

“Good.” Charlie said.

| You were worried? |  
**| What will the vaccine do? |**  
| How are you? |  
| ... |

“What do you think the vaccine is going to do to me?” Nate asked. He wasn’t sure if the vaccine had completely flushed out of his system. Maybe his body had gotten used to the foreign substance. He didn’t like the idea of it being in him even if that was the case.

“Ideally, make you immune to the zombie virus.” Charlie said. “But I highly doubt that. Those assholes couldn’t cure shit. It can still do something positive for you though. Maybe it’ll make you more resistant to other infections.”

“But I had a bad reaction to it.”

“Initially. Doesn’t mean that it won’t help you in the future.” She paused, and Nate knew what she was going to say next.

“How do you feel about the people you killed at the clinic?” She asked. Nate sighed.

 **| You were right |**  
| The same way I always feel |  
| I’m okay |  
| ... |

“Before I went there,” Nate said. “I was so prepared to kill everybody to get you two back. But I still felt guilty about not feeling anything. I _still_ don’t know how that fucking works but whatever. The point is I wanted to save you both but I also wanted to give a shit about the lives I was going to take. Then, when I was driving to the clinic, I started to think about how you two would look like dead. And I couldn’t…” He tightened the grip on Charlie and Vaughan’s shoulders. “I realized you were right. Fuck guilt and fuck people. The three of us are more important than anybody else.” Charlie nodded and gave his leg a light pat.

“Do you still care that you might be crazy?” She asked.

| A bit |  
**| I accept it |**  
| It doesn’t matter |  
| ... |

 _“Nah._ I’ve come to terms with it.” Nate told her. “Besides, it’ll come in handy like you said.” There was a sense of peace that came with not caring about his mental health, like untying a straitjacket in his mind. This wouldn’t comfort normal people, but he wasn’t normal.

“I told you.” She yawned again. The possibility that Charlie went without sleep for twenty-four hours reoccurred to Nate. He thought back to the three of them being trapped in the room. Maybe she cried not only out of fear of losing him and Vaughan, but also due to the lack of sleep making her more sensitive. Nate knew that being put in the position to kill him would’ve inflected the same pain in Charlie regardless of how much rest she got, but he wondered if she would’ve shot him had she actually slept.

“...I can’t remember ever seeing you cry before today.” Nate said.

“I will _stab you_ in the _kidneys.”_ Charlie threatened, glaring up at him. Nate smiled.

“Seriously, I’ve never seen you cry before.” Nate said. “You didn’t cry when you burnt your leg when we were kids, or when you almost broke your arm falling down the stairs in high school. Hell, you never cried when we beat the shit out of each other just before we broke up.”

“You’re kidneys will be _filled with holes.”_ Charlie warned.

| I’m glad |  
| I’ll drop it |  
**| Pussy |**  
| ... |

 _“Pussy.”_ Nate teased. It relieved him to have concrete evidence that Charlie cared. However, he couldn’t think of a way to say that without sounding clingy. Even ‘I’m glad you give a shit’ sounded a bit off to him. If she needed to hear it, he would have said it, but it wasn’t necessary so he kept it to himself. Still, it was nice to know.

**(?) Charlie thinks you’re a dick**

“Shut up!” Charlie growled.

“Not only do you have a pussy, you _are_ a pussy. I never would have guessed.”

“I have more balls that _you!”_

“That doesn’t sound healthy.”

“Where’s my knife?”

“Crouching tiger, hidden pussy.” Nate chimed. Charlie smacked him in the stomach. He doubled over and laughed, bring both her and Vaughan forward with his movements. Vaughan flinched.

“Huh?” The younger man mumbled. He shifted at Nate side and rubbed his eyes. Nate felt the weight of him increase, like being conscious caused him to get heavier.

“About time you woke up.” Charlie said. “Feeling better.” Vaughan nodded. The nod was lethargic and forced. Charlie frowned.

“I’m going to step out for a bit.” Vaughan said quietly. “I’ll be back.” Vaughan gently pulled himself out of Nate’s hold and left the truck. Vaughan’s form; head bent and shoulders lowered; dissolved into the mist. 

“You should go after your _boyfriend_.” Charlie told him. “We don’t know how well he is. He might get lost.”

| He’ll be fine |  
| Why can’t you go? |  
**| Alright |**  
| ... |

“Alright.” Nate said. He shifted himself over to the passenger’s door, his hand sliding across Charlie’s back before letting her go. He exited the truck and quietly closed the door behind him.

Trees materialized and dematerialized as he walked through the fog. Nate kept his guard up. The fog was dense enough to conceal zombies, but the undead were hardly ever quiet. Nate listened closely for any noises that shouldn’t have be there. He didn’t survive the clinic just to be ambushed by monsters.

He didn’t have to walk long before he found Vaughan. The younger man stood beside a tree, staring straight ahead. Nate followed his gaze and saw nothing. Getting closer, Nate noticed the expression on Vaughan’s face. It was distressed but fought to look determined; like he was being drafted to a war he wanted no part of, but was tried to be ready and willing to serve his country.

Hearing footsteps, Vaughan turned to face Nate. He squinted, trying to make out the form in front of him. When he did, his eyes widened. Fear flashed through them for moment before he closed his eyes in sorrowful resignation. Nate didn’t understand or like that.

“Hi.” Vaughan sounded tired in all the ways a person could sound tired. Nate frowned.

| What are you doing? |

| You feeling okay? |  
**| Hi |**  
| ... |

“Hi.” Nate said. The corner of Vaughan’s mouth twitched upwards, but it could hardly be considered a smile.

“It’s really foggy out.” Vaughan told him. Nate nodded. Vaughan looked around, purposefully avoiding Nate’s eyes. “How old am I?”

“...You’re three years younger than me.” Nate said slowly. “Why? Did you forget?”

“No.” Vaughan sighed. “It’s just... I feel _old.”_ He closed his eyes. His head was lowered and his shoulders sagged. It was as if an invisible force were trying to suck him into the ground.

“C’mon. Let’s get back to the truck.” Nate said. He could see that Vaughan was upset, he had every right to be considering all the bullshit that had happened, but moping outside wasn’t going to make things suck less. If he had to brood, it was better to do that somewhere safe. Nate gestured at Vaughan to move forward. The younger man stared at him before looking back at the ground.

“...I should leave.” Vaughan murmured.

“We’re going to leave in the morning.” Nate told him. “Let’s go.”

“That’s not what...” Vaughan trailed off. He closed his eyes, inhaled, and held his breath. He exhaled. “I mean... I should leave you and Charlie. For good.” Nate stared at him. Vaughan reluctantly stared back. He wasn’t joking. Nate knew Vaughan never joked about things like this, but that was the first thought that came into his head. Vaughan wasn’t joking. He _actually_ wanted to leave them.

“The fuck?” Nate finally managed to say. “ _Why?”_ After everything they’ve done to save him, why would he _want_ to go? If anything, they gave him more reasons to stay. Vaughan averted his eyes and looked down at his feet. He tried to speak, mouth opening and closing repeatedly, but no words came. After a minute of silence, with Nate getting frustrated and preparing to drag the idiot back to the truck, Vaughan began talking.

“...If I had gone to the hospital, I would’ve taken chemotherapy.” Vaughan said. “All of my hair would drop out. I’d feel nauseous and loose weight. The pain of poison fighting the tumor in my body would hurt so much; I’d feel like giving up. I’d want to run away and let the cancer kill me. It would be less painful, at least I’d think so.”

“I wouldn’t know if you would come to see me, due to what happened to Casey and you being... _you_ , but you _would_ come and I would be pleasantly surprised and very, _very_ grateful. Charlie would visit me regularly, and whenever she saw you she’d always make a snarky comment about you taking so long to visit me. You’d reply in an equally snarky manner. I’d tell you both to stop fighting but you two would never listen, and eventually the banter would make me laugh. You two would be one of the reasons why I wouldn’t giving up.”

Vaughan paused. He grabbed at the sides of his pants, arms and shoulders shaking. It was one thing to reminisce about the things you could no longer get, like cable or indoor plumbing, but even thinking too long about that was bad for your sanity and adaptability in the apocalypse. Imagining the life you could’ve had if the world had stopped itself from plummeting into hell was different. It was torture. It was self-destructive. Even if it wasn’t, Nate didn’t understand what the life lost to them had to do with Vaughan wanting to leave. The younger man collected himself and continued to talk.

“In the end, I might have died from the tumor no matter how much I wanted to live, but... I might not have. Because despite the odds against me, I’d still have a chance. There would be a possibility for me to make it. That’s what _should_ have happened, but the zombies came and ruined my chances. No matter how I die it’ll be them that kill me, because if they’d never shown up I’d be in a hospital right now. I’d be getting help.”

“I’m fighting to stay alive, I really am, but there’s no hope for me. I’m going... I’m going to...” Vaughan choked. He moved his hands from his sides and cupped his mouth. “I’m just _going._ That’s all I need to say, isn’t it?”

“Vaughan, stop it.” Nate’s voice came out as a pathetic half growl. Vaughan gave him a look that told him he wanted to stop more than anything else, but what he was saying needed to be said aloud.

“But before I go,” Vaughan said. “I’m going to get sicker and become a greater detriment to the both of you. _I already am a detriment to the both of you._ That’s why I have to leave. Every time we’ve been in problem it’s been _my_ fault. I don’t mean to keep putting you two in danger, but I always do. And... Nate, you’ve done some very bad things ever since the apocalypse began, but no matter how much I want to be angry at you, I can only blame myself and my illness for your actions.”

Nate gawked at him.

 **| What about Charlie? |**  
| The seizure’s messing with your brain |  
| What are you talking about? |  
| ... |

 _“My_ actions? What about Charlie?” Nate asked.

“...Charlie was always like this. You of all people should know that.” Vaughan told him. “My mother was just like her, that’s way it was easy for me to ignore it when everything was normal, but it’s impossible to ignore it now. I don’t need to blame myself for what’s she’s done... but maybe I should. I could have stopped her but I never did.” He sighed deeply. “Everything’s been my fault.”

 _“How?”_ Nate wanted to ask a thousand questions, but it was better to let Vaughan talk. It would be easier to debunk him that way. Vaughan hesitated before speaking.

“The first day of the apocalypse...” Vaughan began. “If I hadn’t let myself get attacked by that zombie, Anya wouldn’t have thought I was bitten and you two wouldn’t have killed innocent people to save me.” The memory of Vaughan expressing his guilt after having his hallucination came back to him. Nate could understand why he would feel bad about that.

| You should have been stronger |  
**| It was our choice |**  
| Anya was crazy |  
| ... |

“It was our choice to attack those people.” Nate replied. Vaughan’s own neighbors were going to kill him. Like hell he and Charlie were going to stand by and let that happen.

“But I’m the reason why you made that choice.” Vaughan argued. If he and Charlie hadn’t been there, would Vaughan have let himself be killed? Nate didn’t know.

“If I wasn’t sick, we would have never gone to the hospital and the baby would still be alive.” The guilt in Vaughan’s eyes increased as he said this. Nate winced.

| The zombies killed the baby |  
| I told you it would be dangerous |  
**| It’s my fault |**  
| ... |

“I’m the one who got too tired to hold the baby. I’m the one who put her down and forgot to pick her up again.” Nate murmured. It still hurt to talk about her. It also reminded him of Sissy. She was waiting for him, her mom, and all the other people to come back to the camp. He felt awful about letting Sissy think he died, and for her sake he also felt guilty for being unable to save her mother. But there’s was no point going back to the camp if they weren’t planning on letting Sissy and Roxane join their group, especially when they abandoned the others.

“But that wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t in the hospital to begin with.” Vaughan insisted, tone growing in earnest when he heard the guilt in his friend’s voice. When Nate was sleeping in the back of the truck, lost in his own grief and nightmares that made him jolt in his sleep, had Vaughan been having his own bad dreams of hospitals and dead children?

Vaughan never hinted at any emotional distress caused by the baby’s death after the night she died. It made sense as to why. Charlie had been mad about Vaughan lying to her and Nate had been swallowed up by his own demons. He had kept quiet about it, even comforting Nate despite needing comfort too.

“If I hadn’t pointed out that man with the alcohol, we wouldn’t have gotten in trouble with the bandits,” Vaughan’s voice was weaker now. “Charlie wouldn’t have cheated on me, and you wouldn’t have set a man on fire.”

 **| I wanted to do it |**  
| Everything worked out |  
| You don’t read people well |  
| ... |

“I wanted to set that man on fire, he was a _threat.”_ Nate said. “And you don’t know that Charlie wouldn’t have chosen another time to get back at you.” Despite both wronging Vaughan that day, what Charlie did wasn’t nearly as bad as what he had done. Cheating was much easier to deal with than the smell of burning flesh, the look of skin as it melted off the bone, and the sound of someone hysterically screaming for mercy.

“If I wasn’t sick, we would have never gone to the doctor camp and I wouldn’t have been kidnapped.” Vaughan whimpered. “You and Charlie wouldn’t have been so close to dying today if I were healthy.”

 **| You didn’t make us save you |**  
| You should’ve run away |  
| The doctors were bastards |  
| ... |

“You didn’t make us save you. It was our choice to go.” Nate said.

“...When the people at the party needed your help after the car went through the house, you stepped up and helped them when you realized the police weren’t coming. But you didn’t save those people when we were leaving the clinic, and it’s because of everything I made you and Charlie go through.” Vaughan wasn’t listening to him. He truly believed that he was to blame for everything that had gone wrong. Nate’s rebuttals only sounded like excuses on his behalf.

| How’ll you survive on your own? |

 **| Do you want to go? |**  
| Charlie’s going to kick your ass |  
| ... |

“Do you want to go?” Nate asked.

Vaughan sighed. “I already-”

“No. You said you _should_ go, but do you _want_ to go?” Nate stressed. Vaughan’s lips trembled. His eyes glossed over. It took Nate a moment to realize that Vaughan was shaking is head. 

“...No.” Vaughan’s voice broke. “I don’t _want_ to leave. Despite everything that you two have done, I love you both.” He clapped his hand over his mouth and snapped his eyes shut. Nate felt an invisible force stab him in the chest. He knew he should say something. He knew he should echo three of the four words that Vaughan had said. But echo wasn’t the right term. It implied that the words spoken back were fake and hollow. What he felt wasn’t. Nate could say it and maybe it would change Vaughan’s mind.

But he couldn’t do it. The invisible force had twisted inside of him and lodged in his throat. The mentality instilled in him by his father materialized and sealed his mouth shut. Society, which didn’t even exist anymore, came alive in the air around him for the sole purpose of wrapping its hands around his neck. All of that together stopped him from saying three words. Three tiny, stupid, insanely powerful words. Vaughan was on the verge of tears and Nate said nothing.

“But that’s all the more reason why I should leave. I don’t know what I’d do if you or Charlie died because of me.” Vaughan’s voice trembled. Nate didn’t reply. They stood in the melancholic silence, staring at everything but each other. The younger man spread his fingers through his hair. He fought to keep control, to not become a weeping mess.

“Remember...” Vaughan slowly spoke up. “Remember when I said that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to repay you? I was wrong. Leaving is the best way I can pay you back.”

Nate forced himself to speak. “Vaughan-”

“It won’t be hard. You can drop me off at a mall or a gas station and just... drive away.”

“No.”

“This is a good thing in the disguise. I’m weaker than you and Charlie. I never was going to last very long in all of this. And I don’t think I want to live in this world anyways.”

“You are fucking stu-”

 _“Nate!”_ Vaughan almost screamed at him. Nate stopped taking. The younger man pinched the bridge of his nose. He sighed shakily before letting his hand drop. When Vaughan spoke again, his voice was soft. “It’s okay. You can leave me. _It’s okay._ I promise. Don’t let me be a burden anymore.”

| [Agree to let him go] |

**| [Refuse to let him go] |**

| You have to ask Charlie |

| ... |

Nate shook his head. It was a simple, slow turn of the head. Vaughan looked at him like he’d punched him in the face.

**(?) You decided to keep Vaughan around**

“W-why...” Vaughan stammered. _“Why?”_

 **| I’m not abandoning you |**  
| You’re not thinking straight |  
| Charlie would kill me |  
| ... |

“If you were a stranger and told me all that, I’d be happy to leave your ass.” Nate told him. “But you’re not just _some guy._ I’m not going to abandon you.”

“I... I have _cancer...”_ Vaughan said this as if, throughout the entire conversation, Nate had forgotten that cancer was a serious illness. He wasn’t asking to leave because he had the flu or scraped a knee. He had a tumor and it was going to make everyone’s life worse before it killed him. He was like a dog in need of being put down, but he wasn’t _asking_ to be put down. He was asking to be taken out of Nate and Charlie’s hands. Release the family dog into the wild. Let the pet die beyond the view of loving eyes. That’s what he wanted. That’s what he _had_ to want. _Why don’t you want this too?_ Vaughan asked with his eyes.

 _“I don’t give a shit!”_ Nate shouted. Vaughan flinched. “I’m not dropping you off at a mall or a gas station or any of that bullshit! You’re staying with me! _Fuck your cancer!”_ He didn’t care about doing the right thing, but he knew that his selfishness at that moment happen to coincide with the noble thing to do. But Vaughan acted as though Nate were committing a crime.

“Oh.” Vaughan said, voice small. “Okay.” The younger man’s body seemed to sag in slow motion. Neon signs couldn’t have made it clearer that he had given up convincing Nate to let him go.

Vaughan took a step back and bowed. He upper body bent at a forty-degree angle. His arms were straight at his sides, head parallel to the ground.

“I’m sorry you had to put with me for so long.” Vaughan said. “You don’t have to, but if you can, please forgive me.” The younger man kept still, though his arms trembled.

**| Comfort |**

Nate grabbed a handful of Vaughan’s clothes. He yanked upwards, pulling the younger man out of his bow. Vaughan yelped in surprise, instinctively grabbing onto Nate’s arms as he was forced to stand straight. Nate glowered at him. Vaughan began moving his hands to his face to protect himself from any blows, faltered halfway, and let his arms drop. His eyes, originally wide with alarm from Nate’s sudden actions, slowly shrunk to normal size. Vaughan stared back at him, still afraid but resigned to whatever abuse was in store. Nate’s scowl deepened.

He let go of Vaughan for a brief moment before wrapping his arms around him and pulling him closer.

**(?) You tried to comfort Vaughan**

“You can’t...” Vaughan croaked. “You have to stop. I’m not... I don’t deserve...” The younger man trembled softly. His breathing deepened, broken up by occasional pained groans. The trembling turned into violent shaking and his breathing turned into hoarse gasping. Nate held him tighter as Vaughan buried his face into his shoulder and wept.

“I don’t want to die! _I don’t want to die!”_ Vaughan sobbed. He wrapped his arms around Nate, his hands digging into his back. “I don’t want to be alone! _I...”_ He began speaking Japanese, the mournful desperation stronger in his native tongue. Nate felt grief vibrate through him with every word Vaughan spoke.

| Stop crying |  
| I’m so sorry |  
**| I’ll find a doctor |**  
| ... |

“I’ll find you another doctor. Okay?” Nate said. “I’ll... _Fuck.”_ He was going to do everything in his power to keep his word, but Vaughan was deteriorating. He needed more than just a doctor. How was he going to do that? Finding the camp of doctors had been a fluke, but the camp had been a cruel joke disguised as a miracle. Could he find another place, a legitimate one, before it was too late?

Vaughan continued to shake and cry and hold onto him like he was the only living person left. Nate lowered his head and held him tighter. He meant to protect the both of them. Not one or the other. _Both._ He had to find a way to save Vaughan. He had to.

Nate held him until he felt Vaughan’s body relax. He gently pulled away from the younger man. Vaughan let him go. Nate’s eyes stung. He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. They were dry.

Noise coming from the truck got his attention. It was a voice. Two voices. None of them sounded like Charlie.

 **| Let’s go to the truck |**  
| Do you hear that? |  
| Are you okay now? |  
| ... |

“Let’s go back to the truck.” Nate said. Not hearing Charlie’s voice concerned him. She wouldn’t let strangers around the truck without speaking with them first. Was she being silent for a reason? Was she still there? Nate turned around and was about to walk back when Vaughan began laughing. It was a high, unstable laugh. Nate looked over his shoulder at him, eyes wide.

“You’re so fucking dumb.” Vaughan chuckled. “I’m going to ruin your life. This’ll be _fun.”_ His expression- dagger eyed, dancing around insanity- clashed with the tears still running down his face. Vaughan was going through another mood swing or whatever the hell it was. Maybe it was better for Vaughan to stay put for the time being. If the strangers ended up being dangerous Vaughan might decide to help them attack him and Charlie for fun, his mind altered the way it was. Going alone wasn’t ideal though, especially if Charlie wasn’t there anymore.

| Wait here |  
| Come with me |  
| Snap out of it |  
**| ... |**

Nate looked away. He had been outnumbered before and made it out just fine. Two against one? Shit luck for them. Nate walked towards the truck. He didn’t hear Vaughan follow. 

 

* * *

 

“Sweet lights.”

“Yeah, I wonder how much it cost.”

“Maybe it came with the truck?”

“Nah dude, they definitely bought this separately.”

“Think they’ll be willing to trade?”

“For what? We don’t got shit that’s good enough to trade for it.”

As he drew nearer, Nate watched the strangers’ backs and arms move with the rhythm of their words. One was a fat man, the other much thinner. One had long hair, the other wore a beanie. One wore a light red shirt, the other wore dark blue.  Both were around Nate’s height, both stared at his truck, both weren’t with Charlie.

“Hey, you remember that one time TJ got high during Christmas and wanted to buy some guy’s Christmas lights.”

“No, not reall- oh wait, yeah! I do!”

Laughter.

“He wanted those lights so Goddamn bad. I still can’t believe he stripped that dude’s _entire_ house. I mean who the fuck does that?”

“Didn’t he get hypothermia?”

“Yeah.”

Pause. More laughter.

He could see inside the back of the truck now. Scanning the inside from where he was revealed no trace of her. Unless she was hiding on the floor of the truck- which she wouldn’t have done, especially after everything that happened to them- Charlie was gone. 

Had these two taken her?

 _“Man_ I can not wait to go to sleep.”

A yawn.

“Me too. God, today was such a long day.”

The smell of weed floated off of them. Not as powerful as it had been with Jude. Was Jude still alive? Probably not. Where any of the other kidnapped people still alive? Probably not. Was he going to let these strangers kill him after sacrificing people and surviving the clinic? Hell no.

Nate stood behind the two oblivious men.

| What are you doing? |  
| Get away from my truck |  
**| This is the police |**  
| ... |

“This is the police!” Nate’s voice was loud and authoritative. Both men barked, the thinner one nearly jumping in the air and the fatter one almost squatting in surprise. They spun in Nate’s direction.

“Really? You _really_ fell for that crap?” Nate chuckled. His eyes did not laugh with him. They instead bore into the man in the beanie and the one with the long hair, demanding them both to explain why they were near his truck and why Charlie was missing.

“H-hey man.” The beanie wearer said, breathless with the recent scare. “We’re not trying to steal from you or anything.” He raised his arms briefly, the palms of his hands facing Nate.

“Yeah man.” The fat one said, also out of breath. “We were just packing up when we saw your truck. It looked familiar so...” Something behind Nate made the man’s words trail off. The beanie wearer also looked past him. Soft thumping of feet hitting the ground momentarily distracted Nate from his ‘guests’. The strangers made no attempt to defend themselves or run, so whatever was behind Nate was human. One of his friends. Nate turned around.

Vaughan broke through the fog in a calm stride. The tears were wiped clean from his face. The sadistic air around him was not. Charlie wasn’t with him. Glad for the support but disturbed by her absence, the muscles in Nate’s face tried to make him smile and frown at once. It made him appear as though he were suffering through some pleasurable discomfort. Vaughan met his side and Nate turned back to the strangers.

“Who are they?” Vaughan asked.

 **| Potheads |**  
| Beavis and Butthead |  
| I don’t know |  
| ... |

“They’re potheads.” Nate said.

“Really? You’d think the apocalypse would’ve killed them all off already.” This was said with an air of mock frustration, as if he were pretending to complain about a botched job done by somebody else but was too excited to rectify the problem to be truly angry. The strangers, noticing the wrongness of his tone and aura, shifted in place and glanced nervously at each other.

The longhaired fat one tried to speak. “Listen we-”

“Hey Nate?” Vaughan cut him off. “Did the fat guy just say your truck looked familiar? Are they from the clinic?” Nate stared at the beanie wearer and his over-weight friend.

“There’s a clinic near by?” The fat one asked.

“We’ve never been to a clinic man.” The beanie wearer said.

“Sure you haven’t.” Vaughan said.

“We _haven’t!”_ The body of the beanie wearer began to tense.

 **| You’re blind |**  
| Maybe you’re right |  
| Are you sure? |  
| ... |

Nate shook his head at Vaughan.

“I need to give you your glasses back.” He said. There was no way they were from the clinic. Those two looked like they couldn’t put a Band-Aid on straight if their lives depended on it.

“What? They don’t look the part?” Vaughan asked. “Dr. Heart Attack and Nurse Overdose?” Nate chuckled. Turning his attention back to the strangers, Nate noticed that their eyes kept dropping to his and Vaughan’s waists. They were trying to see if they were armed. Nate’s gun was in the truck. Vaughan’s bow and arrows were probably with the doctors. They were completely defenseless against these strangers. Shit luck for the potheads.

“Do we fucking _look_ like doctors to you?” The fat one asked incredulously.

“Liars are very dangerous people, especially during the apocalypse.” Vaughan ignored his question. He also seemed to be ignoring or unaware of the danger they were in by being unarmed. “How should we deal with liars Nate?”

| By making sure they’re lying |  
**| By hurting them |**  
| By making them tell the truth |  
| ... |

“Broken kneecaps usually make people tell the truth.” Nate responded nonchalantly. Aggravating these people into attacking them wasn’t smart. He knew this. But Nate had it with strangers who popped into his life just to ruin it. He had it with people who claimed to peaceful just to stab them in the back. They could save themselves the trouble of surprise attacks and kill the two potheads. Kill them and take all their stuff.

“So does setting them on fire.” Vaughan said. The expression on his face showed that he was already picturing the two strangers ablaze and enjoying what he imagined.

“Listen man! We’re _not_ dangerous and we’re _not_ lying!” The beanie wearer’s voice was high-pitched with fear. The muscles under his skin kept jumping.

“Keep your fucking voice down!” The fat man chastised the beanie wearer.

“Why? Afraid of attracting zombies?” Vaughan laughed. “Don’t be like that, _they can all join the party!”_

“Look dudes I’m sorry that we snuck up on your shit, but like come on man. We’re not doing anything. Let us go.” The beanie wearer said.

| Why should we? |  
| Where you going to go? |  
**| Relax |**  
| ... |

“Relax, there’s no need to be jumpy.” Nate said. Randomly, he remembered the joint Jude had given him after finding out Vaughan had cancer. He chuckled to himself and dug into his pants pocket. The beanie wearer and the fat man took startled steps away from him.

“Here you go.” Nate said. He took the joint out and flicked it at the beanie wearer. The man jumped as if Nate had thrown a spider.

What happened after that occurred so quickly, it was only later on that Nate was able to dissect the chain of events with clarity. After flicking the joint at the beanie wearer, Nate expected Vaughan in his altered state of mind to laugh. When he didn’t, Nate looked at him. Vaughan’s face was tense with mute horror and self-loathing, his body slowly stiffening from the shock of his actions. Nate looked back at the beanie wearer. His hand moved to the back of his pants. Nate was about to ask him what he thought he was doing when Charlie emerged from the fog.

Despite coming from the beanie wearer’s right, she didn’t seem to see him or the fat man. She looked directly at Nate and Vaughan, her eyes asking the both of them where the hell they had been.  Her mouth opened to do the same, but snapped shut when she finally caught sight of the strangers. And that’s when it happened.

“Who the-” A loud bang cut off the rest of her words. Light, accompanied by the noise, illuminated her face and the area around her. A gush of red fluid and meaty flesh hosed out of the back of her head. This red fluid also splashed the man in front of her, though not nearly as much came from her forehead as it did from the back. Her body collapsed gracelessly to the ground.

A gun pointed in the direction Charlie had been standing. Holding the gun was a hand. This hand was attached to an arm, and this arm belonged to the beanie wearing man. The murderer.

Nate didn’t attack him. The thought didn’t even cross his mind. His eyes were stuck on Charlie’s body. She wasn’t getting up. It was impossible for her to get up.

“I... I didn’t mean to...” The murderer’s voice shook in time with his gun. “I didn’t mean to shoot him.” No one looked at the murderer. They all stared at the woman on the ground.

Vaughan doubled over. He clasped a hand over his mouth. Choking, gagging noises escaped through his nose and the skin on his cheeks. Vaughan shot his hand to his chest and threw up. Nate stumbled out of the way of the vomitus overflow. Its contents weren’t nearly as thick or as lumpy as what had escaped Charlie. Vaughan fell to his knees and pressed the side of his arm against his mouth, moaning and dry-heaving.

Expulsion of the little food that had been in Vaughan’s stomach caused the longhaired fat man and the murderer to break out of their stunned state. The murderer shoved the gun into the back of his pants and darted away from his victim, his friend, the dry heaving man, and the man with the scary eyes. The fat one rushed after him. Fog ate their forms from view.

Nate snapped out of his own shock. He needed to chase after them. He needed to kill the bastard- kill _both_ of them for Charlie. He turned to Vaughan. The younger man rocked himself, still dry heaving into his arm. Through the breaks between trying to drain his already empty stomach, Vaughan whimpered feverishly in Japanese.

 **| Get up |**  
| Stay here |  
| I’ll be back Charlie |  
| ... |

“Get up! We’re going after them!” Nate ordered. Vaughan didn’t move. He didn’t make any sign that he heard him. He stared at Charlie’s feet, rocking and moaning and struggling to throw up again.

**(?) You tried to bring Vaughan with you**

_“Vaughan!”_ Nate growled. He grabbed the arm covering Vaughan’s mouth and roughly togged forward. Vaughan let himself be pulled but otherwise didn’t move. “Charlie...” Sick and grief floated in Vaughan’s voice. “Charlie.... _Charlie...”_ Echoes of a car engine came from a distance. The bastards were going to get away if Nate didn’t leave soon. With a frustrated hiss he let go of Vaughan and dashed to the driver’s side of the truck. He slammed the door shut and jammed the keys into the ignition. The truck roared to life and speed in the direction the strangers had run off to, fueled by gasoline and murderous rage.

 

* * *

 

Forward. Nate kept driving forward; passing an abandoned prison bus, a gas station, over broken pieces of a yield sign. He was blind to everything that didn’t lie beyond the windshield of the truck. Nate ground his teeth together. His back hovered off the chair. He choked the life out of his steering wheel.

It never occurred to him that he had no idea how the getaway car of the murderer and his fat shit friend looked like. His entire focus was held on the thought of finding them and doing everything in his power to kill them, even if it meant slamming his truck into their car.

A yellow Volkswagen came into view, speeding a few feet ahead of him. Nate couldn’t see the occupants of the car. People unrelated to the potheads could’ve been inside. He could be chasing after innocent strangers who happened to be racing down the road this late at night. Again, none of that occurred to Nate. The moment he saw the yellow car, he moment he marked them as ones responsible for Charlie’s death.

He wound down the window, stuck his arm out, and shot at the car.

**(o)**

Glass from the back of the Volkswagen shattered. The car swerved wildly for a few seconds before straightening out. Light flashed from the car as his targets returned fire.

**/!\ Use the arrow keys to move the truck out of the line of fire while shooting**

Left and right, Nate swerved the truck on the road as he shot at the bastards.

**(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)**

Another flash of light came from the car. Seconds later, something exploded inside the truck. The loud bang vibrated the air inside and knocked Nate out of his homicidal concentration.

“Shit!” He cried. He made a hard right off the main road. Trees, bushes, and grass flew past the truck. Nate slammed on his breaks. The truck stopped inches away from a large rock.

 _“Shit._ What happened?” Nate said. The truck couldn’t be damaged too severely. Not now. Not when he just found the fuckers. Stomach dropping to his knees, Nate flung the door open and ran to the front of the truck.

The right headlight was broken. Faded light radiated out, faithfully determined to continue its job. That was the extent of the damage.

“Are you _fucking kidding me!?”_ Nate roared. “I stopped for _this_ bullshit!?” He kicked the grill of the truck. He stopped chasing the murderer for one headlight. If he hadn’t stopped they would’ve been dead by now. But no, he gave those assholes more than enough time to escape.

Nate stopped himself from assaulting the truck farther. He didn’t have time to throw a tantrum. Charlie was dead. _Dead._ She needed to be avenged. He absolutely would not give up tracking the fuckers down. Nate got back into his truck and reversed onto the main road. 

 

* * *

 

The sound was faint and distant. If Nate had remembered to roll up the window he wouldn’t have heard it. The noise of something heavy hitting metal and tires screeching to a stop floated into the truck along with the wind. Nate slowed to a stop.

It was _them._ The bastards got into an accident. A bad one, from what little Nate could hear. It came from the side street his truck was currently idle beside.

“I got you now you son of a _bitch!”_ Nate jeered. He turned into the side road and speed off.

 

* * *

 

The fog parted and the yellow car came into view.

_I’m going to kill him._

The murderer was inside. His head turned to Nate’s direction before whipping to the opposite side.

_I’m going to kill him._

“Wyatt! Wyatt! Shit!” Nate could hear the murderer’s frantic screams through the truck.

_I’m going to kill him._

Nate shut the door behind him and sped-walked to the Volkswagen.

_I’m going to **kill him.**_

The yellow car’s engine started up.

**(o)**

Nate used the butt of his gun and the length of his arm to smash the window. Glass fragments flew into the car. The murderer shrieked. He grabbed onto the murder’s arm and tried to force him through the window.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

A dangerous tug-of-war was played between the two men and the arm. Nate pulled forward with rage-fuelled strength and the murderer pulled back with fear-induced power.

“Get... the fuck... off!” The murderer growled. He jerked Nate’s arm to the side of the door. A large shard of glass, still attached to the window frame of the car door, sliced through Nate’s hand. Despite skin, muscle, and bone, the glass entered with no resistance.

The foreign object was impossibly cold for the briefest of moments before it burned pain through his entire hand. Nate screamed. He yanked his arm away from the broken window, staggered back, and cradled his injury. Tires screeched as the Volkswagen made its escape. Nate turned his attention away from the pain- sweltering, needle-like, horrible pain- and aimed at the retreating car.

**(o)(o)(o)**

None of the bullets hit the son of a bitch.

“Come on, man, we was just getting started!” Nate called after the murderer. The car disappeared into the fog.

 

* * *

 

Pain like a scorching ball of barbed wire afflicted the center of his hand. Somehow, he could still move his fingers, but he didn’t want to unnecessarily twitch them if he could help it. Even a fraction of movement in any direction caused needles to shoot up his arm.

The pain did not distract him from how absolutely enraged he was. The motherfuckers got away. He almost had the one who shot Charlie, almost shot _him_ in his Goddamn head. But no. He escaped. They both escaped. Nate punched the steering wheel and hollered. He would find them again, and when he did he would do more than shoot them in the head. They’d leave the world _screaming._  

He kept the headlights on. If anybody else came to the area, he wanted to see them coming in advance.

Nate stepped out of his truck. The first thing he saw was Charlie’s body on the ground.

The void, the empty thing that took over his mind when severely traumatic events occurred, awoke with the sight of her lying there. The initial shock of Charlie’s death and the fierce determination of kill the fucker who shot her made the void dormant. Now it tried to suck up the whirlwind of emotions knocking about in his brain. Nate wouldn’t let it. This entire night had spiraled out of his hands. He needed to be in control.

**(o) Look at Charlie**

If he ignored the blood, Charlie looked normal from the neck down. She didn’t look like she were sleeping, Charlie never found it comfortable to sleep on her back so she always slept on her side, but it looked like she were simply stargazing. One arm rested on top of her stomach, the other sprawled at her side. Her legs were apart by a few inches, toes pointing up to the sky. Her skin looked the same as it always did, if blood spattered. He knew she would be cool to the touch, but she didn’t look like all her body heat was gone. Even with the blood it only looked like she’d lain down in it and couldn’t bother to move herself.

Charlie’s head broke the illusion.

A small hole was positioned over her left brow. Such a small, insignificant bullshit of a hole, yet so much had come out of the back of her head. He couldn’t see how large the exit hole was. He didn’t want to know how much of her head was gone. It had been enough to kill her. That was all the information he needed to have.

A slit of space parted her lips from the sentence she never was able to complete. That pothead had taken not only her life, but the ability to finish her train of though. Not “who the fuck are you” or “who the hell are these people”, just two words and then death.

Her eyes were open. A testament to how taken off guard she had been when that bastard shot her in the head. They were still beautiful, like wisps of smoke after the flame blows out, but even their beauty was tainted by death. Blood dragged itself into her left eye, almost obscuring the iris. Her right eye was untouched by blood. Both were faded and stared vacantly into space.

**(o) Talk to Charlie**

Nate walked toward her until he was standing in the pool of blood her sprawled arm was resting in. He squatted down. He placed his uninjured hand on her stomach, partially for balance, partially to feel her again. His fingers laced with hers. She was ice.

“Charles...” Nate’s voice was gravelly, cracked and brittle. “Ch-Charlie I- _fuck.”_

| They thought you were a guy |

**| I didn’t kill them |**

| You weren’t in the truck |

| ... |

“I didn’t kill them.” Nate said. “I tried but... I’m going to find them again. _I’m going to find them.”_ Killing them wouldn’t have made things better, but not killing them made everything worse.

| Why am I talking to you? |  
| I’ll bury you |  
**| You were a bitch |**  
| ... |

“You were a bitch. You were such a fucking bitch... but I’ll miss you so Goddamn much.” His voice hitched. “I’m sorry. I’m sofucking _sorry_ Charlie.”

**(o) Close eyes**

Nate slipped his hand away from hers. He placed his thumb over each eyelid and slowly closed them. Nate stood up, legs shaking slightly.

She was supposed to be berating him about getting his hand stabbed through like a shish kabob. ‘We don’t have any antibiotics!’ She was supposed to say, ‘You’re going to _die_ you dumb piece of shit!’ She was supposed to be in the truck, she was supposed to scare those two motherfuckers away from the area before Nate and Vaughan came back. _She was supposed to be alive._ Vaughan would...

“Vaughan?” Nate called. Where was he? He needed to find him, and fast. He was just noticing zombie noises coming from somewhere close by. He couldn’t tell how many, but he knew there were at least three and they were centralized in one area. Why were those monsters even there? He hadn’t done anything to drawn them to him. He had been quiet.

But it hadn’t always been quiet in the area.

When the gun fired it was loud and echoed. Vaughan had snapped out of his mood swing before the gun went off. Zombies are attracted to loud noises. Nate tried to make Vaughan come with him but he wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t even look at him. So Nate drove off alone. The truck’s engine made a loud noise as he left. Zombies are attracted to loud noises. Nate had looked through the rear-view mirror at Vaughan. The younger man still wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. Even as the truck got farther from him, Nate could see Vaughan suddenly doubling over and scream.

Zombies are attracted to loud noises. It was a corrupt version of children being drawn by the sounds of an ice-cream truck. They weren’t roaming around because something had drawn their attention. Food, which would be theirs if they could catch it. Nate could tell that they did, because he could hear them eating.

And he couldn’t see Vaughan.

“No.” Nate voice quaked. “No no no _no!”_ He sprinted in the direction of the crunching, chewing, moaning noises. Ignoring the pain, he pulled out his gun with his injured hand. Within seconds the zombies came into view. There were three of them. They were hunched over their prey, taking handfuls of flesh and organs. Nate skidded to a stop. The monsters turned towards him, mouths full. Nate aimed the gun and fired.

**(o)(o)(o)(o)**

His aim was faulty. The pain in his hand caused the gun to shake. He clipped one in the shoulder before shooting it in the head. The other two trudged towards him, marking him as their next meal. Nate fired again.

**(o)(o)(o)**

The zombie’s nose disappeared as Nate shot it in the center of its decayed face. Before he could shoot the last one, it grabbed his arm and yanked him forward. The force of the pull made him trip. He fell, bring the zombie down with him. The stench of rot and blood assaulted him as face connected with its chest. Nate jerked his head up, gaging at the smell. The monster held a death grip on his arms. It pulled them down, trying to bring his neck closer to its snapping jaws.

**< <<<Q>>>>**

Nate used his upper body strength to force himself upward. He slowly brought his knee up to its chest. The zombie snarled at him.

**[E]**

He twitched his wrist to the side and shot it in the head. Dark blood splattered over his face and clothes. Its body jerked then went limp. Nate jumped up and away from creature.

**(o)**

He kicked it hard in its stomach, screeching while he did so. His foot went farer in than it should have. He didn’t care. Pieces of shit, every last one of them. Why did they even exist? Who the fuck was to blame for all of this? He raised his foot to kick it again when he heard wheezing.

Nate slowly placed his foot back on the ground. He didn’t want to look behind him. He didn’t want to see. Maybe he was wrong. Those creatures couldn’t be eating what he thought they were. It was a deer or a bear or anything other than what he knew it would be. He turned around.

It was Vaughan.

His skin was pale. Pieces of flesh and organs littered the ground around him. His stomach was ripped open, intestines hanging out on either side. The last set of ribs of his ribcage was visible and stripped bare. Chucks of flesh in his arms and legs were gone; bones visible in many of these areas. Blood leaked out of his mouth and merged with the body of blood seeping out of him and pooling on the ground.

“Fuck! _Vaughan!”_ Nate cried. He ran to him and knelt down. Vaughan breathing was erratic and shaky. He wheezed with every inhale. He spoke in strained, faint, and broken Japanese. He shivered hard but would hiss occasionally as if he were burning. His watering eyes stared beyond the trees, mist, and sky. They were unfocused and lost again, but this time it was worse because there was a distant awareness to being lost. Vaughan was adrift in a world of unbearable pain.

Nate reached out with both hands before pulling away. Infected. Vaughan was infected now. He couldn’t touch him without thinking. But _think?_ This was too much, too fast to think properly.

 **| What happened? |**  
| I’m going to get you out of here |  
| Slow your breathing |  
| ... |

“What the fuck happened!?” Nate demanded. “Why did you let yourself get eaten!?” That was ridiculous. Vaughan wouldn’t have _let_ himself get eaten. He must have been taken off guard. He must not have seen them coming. Unless, because of his guilt, he saw the zombies, stood still, and let them do what they did best.

**(?) Vaughan can’t answer that**

The younger, dying man rasped half sentences and broken off words in Japanese. Tears poured down his eyes, eyes that still stared upward and perceived nothing but pain and emptiness.

| I’ll try to stop the bleeding |  
**| Speak English |**

| [Lie] I killed the man who shot Charlie |

| ... |

“I need you to speak English!” Nate told him. “I can’t understand you!”

**(?) Vaughan won’t remember that**

Nate shifted himself over, hovering above Vaughan until they were face to face. Vaughan looked through him like he was glass. His murmuring weakened, his breathing shallow and slowed, his shivers lessened in their intensity.

| I should’ve brought you with me |  
**| Don’t do this |**  
| I don’t blame you |  
| ... |

“C’mon man. Don’t do this to me.” Nate was pleading with him now. Stupidly, futilely begging. “I can’t lose you both in the same Goddamn day! _Fucking stop it!”_ Slowly, Vaughan did stop. His body stopped trembling, his mouth stopped moving, and with a final sigh his hoarse breaths stopped as well. Vaughan closed his eyes.

“Vau...” Nate’s voice fell below a whisper. “Vaughan?” No reply. The younger, dead man lay on the ground like a torn, bloody chew toy. Nate stared at him for an uncountable amount of time before sitting up. The void vibrated in his mind, numbing all thoughts and feeling with each pulse. Nate let it. The detachment wouldn’t last forever no matter how much he wanted it to. So let him go brain dead for a while. Better than the alternative, better than acknowledging that he was now utterly alone.

He looked down at Vaughan; any and all emotion associated with the younger man slowly fading. Vaughan’s eyes opened. The void screeched to a stop.

 _“V-Vaughan?”_ Nate rasped. He hovered over the younger man again. Vaughan’s eyes focused in on him. They were faded and void of life. He extended his hand towards Nate’s face, slow movements masquerading violent intent. Nate staggered to his feet and out of Vaughan’s grasp.

The younger man let out a long, monotone groan. He rose, jerking like a demented, broken marionette. His intestines hung at his sides like ribbons. An organ dropped out of his midsection as he stood. Vaughan stretched his arms in front of him and trudged forward, turning the fallen organ into a bloody pancake under his foot. 

Nate stepped back. His head shook with a silent refusal to accept what was happening. But this was reality. Vaughan was a zombie and he was advancing on him, seeing him as nothing more than his first meal. Charlie was going to kill him. He let Vaughan die and Charlie was going to kill him. But Charlie was dead too.

Letting out another long groan caused blood to eject from Vaughan’s mouth. Step after step, he kept slogging forward and Nate kept retreating.

The truck wasn’t far away. Nate wouldn’t even have to run to get away from his slow, undead friend. But he should put him out of his misery. Put a bullet straight into the center of his head. It wouldn’t be hard for either of them. It was cruel to leave him like that. Nate spared a fast glace at the truck.

| Shoot zombie |

**| Leave |**

If he wanted Vaughan to stop suffering, he should have killed him when he was still alive. This thing wasn’t his friend. It couldn’t switch between two languages with ease, it couldn’t get red in the face when Nate made a lewd comment, it couldn’t comfort him and say that everything would be okay. Shooting it or not made no difference, Vaughan was already dead. This _thing_ was dead.

Nate ran to the truck. The zombie’s moans followed him.

**(?) You chose not to shoot Vaughan**

The cold metal of the keys burned into his wound as he started the truck. The engine roared to life. He drove out of the woods at top speed. Two minutes later, he parked his truck on the side of the road and sat there, wondering what the hell just happened.

He caught his reflection in the rear view mirror and noticed an odd shape poking out of his pocket. Nate pulled the shape out and held it in his hands. It was Vaughan’s glasses. He never returned them to him. Unfolding the temples of the glasses, he read the engraving written on the inside.

若久 戦輝凛 | Wakahisa Charlie

They were alive hours ago. Now they were gone. He would never see living versions of them again. It wasn’t fair. He wanted them back.

He loved them both. The lenses were getting wet.

He loved the both of them. His body quaked.

He loved Vaughan and Charlie.

Nate wailed.

 

* * *

**THE WALKING DEAD: REAL MONSTERS**

  
_Credits roll –_ [ _Walk Among The Cobras Part 3_ ](http://visambros.tumblr.com/post/56682801666/eddiesbeanie) _plays_  


* * *

 

Nate knew the void in his head had caused him to lose track of time after the deaths of Vaughan and Charlie. He assumed that he lost a week. Though he wondered; if he only lost a week, why had the weather changed so drastically?

With no one to tell him otherwise, he had no way of knowing that the event forty-one days into the apocalypse caused him to blank out for three months. He had no way of knowing that for nearly ninety-one days, he walked the earth as a living zombie.

He hadn’t focused on the question for long. Six months into the end of the world- or three months, according to him- driving down a road with no fixed destination in mind, Nate wasn’t thinking about much of anything. He didn’t wonder when and how he had buried Charlie, or if Vaughan was eating anyone at that moment, or where the bastards who killed his friends were. All he knew is that he was bored and needed to find new music to fill the empty space of his truck.

Looking back at the road after taking another swing of whiskey, Nate noticed a figure in the distance. He- if it was a he- was walking along the side of the road. Nate drove closer. The figure stopped and turned towards truck. They then turned away for a moment before slowly facing the truck again.

Nate hummed. So the guy- he was sure it was a guy now- wanted a ride? Nate found himself oddly pleased with this. It would give him something to do and he could use the company. Besides, the stranger would fit in his truck just fine. It could hold three people after all.

He slowed to a stop beside the stranger. It was a black kid. He was maybe eighteen, nineteen, or a young looking twenty year old. The black kid, who apparently was called Russell if name on the bag strap wasn’t a brand name and the bag actually belonged to him, regarded Nate with suspicion and careful optimism. Nate rolled down his window.

_“Bang!”_ He shouted. As the younger man flinched, Nate smiled inwardly. Maybe this kid would be fun to be around.

“I just killed you.”

_To be continued in The Walking Dead – 400 Days DLC_


End file.
